Protocol as Poetry: Case Study on Pak's Protocol Arts
Botao Amber Hu
TL;DR
The paper investigates protocol art by conducting a focused case study of Pak, a pioneering pseudonymous protocol artist who treats smart contracts as both medium and message. Through a grounded-theory approach and multiple data streams, it identifies seven core characteristics—system-centric composition, autonomous governance, distributed agency, temporal lifecycle aesthetics, economic-driven engagement, poetic meaning in ritual, and interoperable composability—that distinguish protocol art from related movements. The analysis shows how Pak choreographs on-chain mechanisms and participatory actions to produce evolving social meaning, culminating in an emergent ecosystem of works and tokens (e.g., Merge, Censored, burn.art, Lost Poets). The study situates protocol art within broader theoretical frameworks (complex systems, actor-network theory, crypto-economics) and discusses design implications for future practitioners. Overall, it contributes to defining protocolism as a distinct art form shaped by immutable, permissionless, and participatory blockchain infrastructures with real-world social and economic impact.
Abstract
Protocol art emerges at the confluence of blockchain-based smart contracts and a century-long lineage of conceptual art, participatory art, and algorithmic generative art practices. Yet existing definitions-most notably Primavera De Filippi's "protocolism"-struggle to demarcate this nascent genre from other art forms in practice. Addressing this definition-to-practice gap, this paper offers a focused case study of pioneering protocol artworks by Pak, an early and influential pseudonymous protocol artist who treats smart contracts as medium and protocol participation as message. Tracing the evolution from early open-edition releases of The Fungible and the dynamic mechanics of Merge to the soul-bound messaging of Censored and the reflective absence of Not Found, we examine how Pak choreographs distributed agency across collectors and autonomous contracts, showing how programmable protocols become a social fabric in artistic meaning-making. Through thematic analysis of Pak's works, we identify seven core characteristics that distinguish protocol art: (1) system-centric rather than object-centric composition, (2) autonomous governance for open-ended control, (3) distributed agency and communal authorship, (4) temporal dynamism and lifecycle aesthetics, (5) economic-driven engagement, (6) poetic message embedding in interaction rituals, and (7) interoperability enabling composability for emergence. We then discuss how these features set protocol art apart from adjacent artistic movements. By developing a theoretical framework grounded in Pak's practice, we contribute to the emerging literature on protocolism while offering design implications for artists shaping this evolving art form.