Remember NFTs? Much of the world seems to have forgotten them after the boom back in 2021. But the art world still sees the potential of blockchain-backed assets. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has launched a short-session game called Art Links that awards players with NFT badges if they can identify connections between works of art from The Met collection.
The Met's first Web3-based experience is a serialised game with new challenges released every Thursday for 12 weeks. Players identify connections, or 'chains', between works of at to win in-game NFT badges as well as in-person and digital rewards like exhibition catalogues, discounts at The Met Store and private, curator-led tours.
The game was designed with the art and tech platform TRLab to provide an interactive way to engage with the museum's collection. The Met's CEO Max Hollein says it's a first for any museum and that it aims to broaden engagement and understanding of culture and creativity. "Art Links exemplifies how The Met continues to connect audiences to ideas and to one another while exploring emerging technology," he says.
In each game, players create a chain that consists of seven artworks and six connections, which can be words, emojis, or artworks. The chain is completed in three rounds, with each round becoming more difficult.
Each chain includes at least one work from The Met’s collection of 20th- and 21st-century art, placing these in a broader creative context. There are four types of connections: Highlights, showcasing key works, artists or movements; Material, focusing on how works are made; Emojis, highlighting signs, symbols, and visual culture; and Web3, showing how artists across time have engaged with core concepts underpinning the blockchain, such as randomization, security, and ledgers.
Players can collect 12 badges, one for each weekly chain, with opportunities to earn seven achievements linked to in-game challenges. Five of the achievement tokens are free, while two have to be purchased. Themes that players will discover during the 12 weeks include: 'Objects in Disguise,' artworks made from surprising and sometimes deliberately deceptive materials and 'Harlem as Muse,”' featuring artists who looked to Harlem as a subject and source of inspiration.
Visit artlinks.metmuseum.org to play. For more on NFTs, see our piece on how to make and sell an NFT.
