traditional + digital media artists face off in kenny schachter's NFT game

pop principle: the nft art game

Inspired by the art world’s knee-jerk hostility to crypto art, POP PRINCIPLE is a battle that pits key names in the traditional arts scene against pioneers in the digital realm to shed light on the rapid evolution of the creative industry. The NFT art game, imagined by Kenny Schachter and powered by digital art platform Daata, positions the likes of art critic Jerry Saltz, mega-dealer Larry Gagosian, and artist Yayoi Kusama in one camp, and digital artists Refik Anadol and Osinachi, and record-breaking NFT artist BEEPLE in the other. Hans Ulrich Obrist adopts a neutral stance and stands in the middle ground. Across several rounds, players are invited to select and mint unlimited editions of their favorite creators with the goal of becoming the leading collector of the most popular character.

The eight characters, encapsulated as three dimensional animated avatars with their distinct personalities, will be released as a series of open-edition NFTs at Kenny Schachter’s show at New York City’s NFT Gallery on May 18. The tokens will then be sold on Daata for one month, through June 17.

POP PRINCIPLE: the NFT art game | all images courtesy of Kenny Schachter

kenny schachter sheds light on the art-world’s rapid evolution

With the art world recently undergoing leaps and bounds with the integration of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and the blockchain, an inevitable divide has been created between analog and digital camps and general art-enthusiasts. Weighing in on this, artist and critic Kenny Schachter poses the gamification of NFTs as a humorous yet thoughtful facilitator of the discourse. With POP PRINCIPLE: The Art Game, he pits the opposing sides against one another to invite players to inspire a playful conversation that might help to bridge the two together. ‘The purpose of the game is to give people the opportunity to become a key player in this fantastical game-play world of adulation and veneration of artists and technology, as well as share the excitement of performative exhibitions and deals,’ notes digital gallery Daata.

The game comprises four rounds, each of which releases five to ten open edition NFT characters which players can choose from. ‘Based on the character chosen, users will battle for success in gaining notoriety, status, artworks and wealth, by being shrewd, charismatic, charming, devious, dangerous, clever, unscrupulous, or simply whatever it takes,’ expands the team. At the end of each stage, the most minted character will be deemed winner and the collector holding the greatest number of winning NFTs will receive a physical sculpture of the corresponding character. All collectors of the winning character will also be able to burn some of their tokens to redeem exclusive prizes. At the end of the rounds, the four winning characters will face off in an ultimate showdown of supremacy.

Refik Anadol