On Indigenous Peoples’ Day (13 October), 17 Native artists staged an unsanctioned augmented reality intervention inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s American Wing. The project, titled ENCODED: Change the Story, Change the Future (through 31 December), digitally overlays cosmological figures, pow-wow dancers, and ivy onto 19th-century paintings and sculptures, challenging the museum’s narratives. Co-curated by filmmaker Tracy Renée Rector and an anonymous Indigenous co-curator in collaboration with the non-profit Amplifier, the intervention coincides with the American Wing’s centenary.
The project matters because it directly confronts the Metropolitan Museum’s limited and segregated display of Native American art, despite recent hires and exhibitions. Artists like Nicholas Galanin critique institutional collecting practices, citing data that only 15% of the Diker collection works have solid provenance. The intervention raises urgent questions about who controls art history, the ethics of museum collections, and the role of technology in reclaiming Indigenous narratives within major institutions.