Code and Clay: Cannupa Hanska Luger and the Shaping of Immersive Futures

In 2021, Cannupa Hanska Luger's installation at the Denver Art Museum combined communal craft with augmented reality. Contributors stitched personal stories into fabric panels, while AR features transformed these objects into a living archive of shared memories and Indigenous resilience.

Luger, a multi-disciplinary artist of Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota, and European descent, emphasizes the relationship between digital tools and storytelling. In a 2021 interview with the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, he described technology as “a collaborator,” amplifying cultural narratives. This perspective challenges the binary often drawn between traditional art and technological innovation.

His 2023 project Future Ancestral Technologies: Trail Marker at the SITE Santa Fe Biennial exemplifies this ethos. It blends 3D-printed components with raw earth, integrating speculative fiction into Indigenous material traditions. The installation invites viewers to rethink ‘ancestry’ as a forward-looking concept. Motion-sensing interactive elements, designed with the Unity game engine, create an evolving experience that reflects Luger’s commitment to interactivity.

Luger questions how technology reshapes our relationship to art. Scholars like Kate Crawford, author of Atlas of AI, argue that technological systems encode biases often invisible to users. Luger engages with this critique by utilizing open-source tools and encouraging collaborative participation. As he stated in a 2022 panel at the University of New Mexico, “The tools we build with shape not just the work, but the communities around it.”

Art institutions are recalibrating their approaches to digital art. The Whitney Museum’s 2018 exhibition Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965–2018 underscored the lineage of algorithmic practices. While many showcases focus on Western pioneers, Luger insists on integrating Indigenous perspectives into the discourse. His juxtaposition of ancient techniques with emergent tech destabilizes linear narratives of progress, proposing an interplay of cyclical and speculative time.

Economic barriers to technology adoption remain significant. High-end AR and motion-sensing installations often rely on custom hardware. Luger counters this by employing scalable, widely-available tools. His use of Unity—free for creators under a certain revenue threshold—demonstrates how digital art can remain accessible while retaining depth. However, his work underscores the need for ongoing conversations about equitable access to these technologies, particularly in marginalized communities.

The reception of Luger’s work suggests its resonance beyond academic silos. Audience responses during the SITE Santa Fe Biennial included comments on how the installation “felt alive” and “challenged the idea of history as static.” Such reactions highlight the growing appetite for art that uses technology not as spectacle but as a medium for dialogue.

Unresolved questions surround this burgeoning field. Can technologies like augmented reality genuinely democratize art-making processes, or do they risk commodifying them into user experiences optimized for platforms? Luger’s work doesn’t resolve these tensions but holds them in productive suspension. By positioning technology as both tool and subject, his practice invites viewers to consider not just the artefact but the systems that create and sustain it.

As institutions increasingly digitize their collections and pivot towards virtual programming—accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic—artists like Luger navigate this shift without abandoning materiality or community. His practice reframes technology not as an end, but as a means to deepen engagement with histories and futures alike. This reshapes the landscape of contemporary art, fostering dialogues that extend beyond gallery walls.