Introducing The Monument Knows, a public humanities and civic research project centered on the Soldiers and Sailors Monument and Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis. The Monument Knows invites Indianapolis residents to explore one of the city’s most iconic public spaces through public conversations, historical research, and experimental uses of technology. The project asks a simple but intriguing question: what does the monument know?

The Monument Knows is a project of Monumental Gestures, developed in partnership with Merritt Chase and supported by a grant from the Mellon Foundation. The initiative includes two interconnected efforts: a four-part public conversation series, and an experimental AI research project developing a tool that enables the monument to “speak.”