traditional + digital media artists face each other in Kenny Schachter’s NFT game

by James · May 18, 2023

pop principle: nft the art game

POP PRINCIPLE is a battle in the art world that pits key names in the traditional art scene against pioneers in the digital and crypto space to shed light on the rapid development of the creative industry and the somewhat skeptical reception. The NFT art game, imagined by Kenny Schachter and powered by digital art platform Data, places the likes of art critic Jerry Saltz, megadealer 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 takes a neutral stance and stands in the middle ground. Across multiple rounds, players are invited to select and create unlimited editions of their favorite creators, aiming to become the leading collector of the most popular character.

The eight characters, encapsulated as three-dimensional animated avatars, 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, until June 17.

POP PRINCIPLE: The NFT Art Game | all images courtesy of Kenny Schachter

kenny schachter sheds light on the rapid development of the art world

With the art world undergoing recent leaps and bounds with the integration of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and the blockchain, an inevitable divide has been created between the analog and digital camps and general art enthusiasts. With this in mind, artist and critic Kenny Schachter posits gamification of NFTs as a humorous, yet thoughtful facilitator of discourse. With POP PRINCIPLE: The Art Game, he pits the opposite sides against each other to inspire a playful conversation that can help bridge the gap between the two.

The game consists of four rounds, each of which releases five to ten open NFT characters for players to choose from. At the end of each stage, the most minted character will be deemed the winner, and the collector with 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 for supremacy.

Refik Anadol