Trusting the Muse With ACK
Alpha Centauri Kid - commonly known as ACK - has stamped all of his profiles with the succinct and all encompassing phrase “letting the whispers of the Muse guide my way.” He’s a captivating visual artist and musician. In this interview, we dive into the depths of his inspiration, penchant for risk-taking and mastery of meme culture. Please note, this conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: What was the moment that helped you realize you wanted to become an artist?
ACK: In art class in middle school, I learned about art history and realized that I could take something from my imagination and bring it to life. So yeah, quite early on.
Q: How would you describe the signature ACK style?
ACK: 3D glitchy art, but it’s hard to describe because it depends on which piece I’m referring to. Maybe the recurring theme is the theme itself, the darkness of the story.
Q: How did you get into crypto? What was your first exposure to crypto, to NFTs?
ACK: My first crypto was Dogecoin, and then from there I got some Ethereum. But, I didn’t know Ethereum had an NFT aspect to it. Once I learned about that and saw people selling NFTs in March of ’21, I think that really helped me realize that people care about art and memes and stuff like that. The first piece that I ever minted was Elon, God of memes. This piece is interesting because I transferred it to who I thought was Elon because some joker minted a piece pretending to be Elon and fooled all of us. Then, that same imposter ended up selling it for 3 ETH and now the piece belongs to a real collector.
Q: That’s amazing. That was under the non-ACK name, right?
ACK: It was pre-ACK, in my pre-ACK wallet. Nobody taught me early on that you need to keep the same wallet for all of your work, that’s why I have three different wallets.
Q: You have spent a lot of time getting to know collectors and rewarding people who interact with your work. How do you think about that in terms of your relationships with collectors and people?
ACK: It’s definitely been important for me to be able to reward those who invest in me and take a chance on me, especially early on– because someone like Vincent Van Dough can tweet about you, and it can change your life. I want to reward those who value my work and trust me and who enjoy my art and the experience.
If your gut's speaking to you very heavily, try and trust the Muse, trust your intuition.
Q: What do you view as the interplay of digital and physical? What are you playing around with in the physical space?
ACK: I’m just trying to capture what I do digitally and bring it to the physical with these silk screens. I think being able to try and capture my kind of glitching, noisy work onto a physical screen or canvases is interesting and exciting. I relate very strongly to the Muse and to artistic intuition. The Muse being my debut contemporary piece is I think huge for me.
Q: Code and the blockchain have always been important in your experimentation. What’s the role of code and blockchain in your artwork?
ACK: To have work that evolves along with me or my journey, we can see the trajectory, and we can see the choices I’ve made and how things have impacted me. To be able to harness that along with art, to make it a performative piece that instead of just a regular piece of art has been interesting. I mean, I think it’s a special thing. It’s a special opportunity that we have and as long as we don’t abuse the tech and just make everything interactive. I try to be thoughtful when it comes to doing interactive works. The fact that we have that option and it’s barely been tapped into is really special.
Q: Definitely. What advice would you give to other aspiring artists?
ACK: Make what you love and mint what you love. Get advice and then take the feedback, but also don’t ignore your gut. If your gut’s speaking to you very heavily, try and trust the Muse, trust your intuition.
Complacency is boring.
Q: Are there any key things that you think have contributed to your success?
ACK: Being the outspoken risk-taker has been a key factor in my success. Complacency is boring. People doing the same old thing is boring. If something’s not very interesting, it doesn’t have the likelihood of being longlasting. Being true to yourself and also taking risks are good things to think about, and to do if you really feel it.
