Echoes of the Prior: A Computational Phenomenology of Forgetting 42
Proceedings of the ACM on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques June 29, 2026 Gege Gao, Bernhard Schölkopf, Andreas Geiger
Memory is not merely data storage but the scaffolding of reality; as biological memory fades, the world regresses into unrecognizable chaos. Echoes of the Prior is an interactive installation that visualizes the subjective phenomenology of forgetting by inducing controlled synaptic decay within a Feed-Forward 3D Reconstruction model, creating an artistic analogy for the erosion of the brain's predictive priors. The neural network serves as a cognitive proxy—a silicon brain whose structural degeneration evokes the disorienting, poetic, and terrifying experience of losing one's grip on the world. This framework invites exploration of neuromorphic aesthetics in visualizing the fragility of intelligence.