State of the art: Experiments from The Met and Hollywood

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From the storied halls of The Met museum to crafting a new generation of hallowed Hollywood stories, crypto is making inroads. Two novel projects — The Met’s Art Links and Incention’s Emergence — hint at how crypto is evolving audience engagement with art and narrative.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has launched its first blockchain-powered experience, Art Links, in an effort to gamify art history. This interactive game invites players to explore The Met’s collection by identifying thematic connections between artworks. Art Links rewards players with NFT badges and real-world perks, such as private museum tours and exhibition catalogues. Built on Base, the experience offers some in-game purchases using crypto, alongside free NFTs for players.

The Met’s project is one that falls in the “Phigital” category — blending digital and physical experiences in a bid to modernize the museum-going experience. The inclusion of “Web3” as one of four connection types in the game shows “how artists across time have engaged with core concepts underpinning the blockchain, such as randomization, security and ledgers,” according to the developer TRLab.

In its first week, Art Links recorded nearly 20,000 plays, with over 1,600 NFTs claimed. A new game is set to roll out each Thursday at 12:01 am ET for the next three months.

Emergence: Collaborative storytelling

While The Met is gamifying art appreciation, Incention and Story Protocol are looking to redefine franchise storytelling. Their new sci-fi project, Emergence — developed with The Dark Knight and Foundation creator David S. Goyer — offers a blockchain-powered platform where fans and creators can co-develop expansive narrative universes.

The project uses Story’s blockchain, which recently launched a developer mainnet, to ensure that all contributions — such as characters, worlds and plotlines — are recognized and compensated via smart contracts.

Incention’s AI co-pilot, Atlas, is also part of the creative process, supporting the ability to generate ideas, visual assets and narratives. The goal is to allow intellectual property holders to open their worlds to collaborative storytelling while maintaining clear licensing and revenue-sharing models. Is this yet another instance of AI-boosted productivity that streamlines Hollywood’s relationship with digital content creation? Or will AI-driven contributions dilute the originality and emotional depth that comes from human writers?

Either way, powerhouse institutions like The Met and Hollywood embracing these tools is indicative of where we’re headed — the lines between creator, audience and collector will continue to blur.

Crypto’s applications are primarily financial, but it’s worth being on the lookout for novel ways the provenance of a distributed, shared ledger can unlock new experiences and shape culture in era digitalis.

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