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Comment by cprecioso | Hacker News Reader

MSCHF have a history of ridiculous ideas that actually get released, so I'm not sure that I'd discount this as vaporware so fast

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I actually worked with them to develop a fake SAT test. It was released, and they had an online competition where they gave $26k to the highest scoring test taker.

Hey I know you~

How did you end up working with them? Super jealous!

They actually contacted me based on my Upwork.com profile. At the time, I think I was the top search result for SAT or SAT verbal.

I've never heard about them before, and my initial impression of art collectives releasing things like this without actually be able to try it is to assume it's just to gather reactions out of people, rather than actually releasing finished products.

But of course, you might be right, I hope no one put any weight on my initial impression which is based on very little.

They've made a bunch of real stuff, and also do weird stunts. For example I really really loved their ATM leaderboard at Art Basel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKeFWA5etkw - Diplo got first place for a little while but was dethroned the next day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwfIspLAiLw&ab_channel=tadje...

They've made some wild shoes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNAsx7kQ6PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0KHuSctqtg

Coffeezilla covered them a couple of years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZKGJCbP6Y

As I said when this was posted yesterday, I'm for sure a fanboi.

Most important for the audience of this website is this project of theirs: https://deadstartuptoys.com/

Ha! Don't forget to "Press [F] to Pay Respects to Capitalism"

I remembered the Satan-themed sneaks, and assumed that was what your link would be for 'wild shoes'. Nope. TIL they also made Strongbad cosplay boots.

Mschf and Improv Everywhere have done some endearing stunts over the years.

> just to gather reactions out of people

"Gather reactions" and do what with them exactly? This seems like a cynical view of art

Gathering reactions is the purpose of art. Art doesn't need to function to serve its purpose.

> Gathering reactions is the purpose of art

According to who?

Plenty of artists do what they do in order to invoke some emotion in people, myself included.

as in some kind of emotional reaction?

I purchased their Illegal Chips series [1], because I'm weird like that. They had partnered with Good Mythical Morning's Josh Scherer to make the fugu flavor. I did get finished products - the horse meat and maggot cheese ones didn't taste like anything wild, like normal bbq and cheese flavors. But fugu was actually really cool in my opinion. I've also see their Big Red Boot [2] while watching wrestling. I believe MSCHF was also behind the Eat the Rich Ice Cream bars [3].

Overall, its a limited edition designer brand "art collective". But they've consistently released their products. Thinking about the TurboTax workflow, it doesn't sound outlandish for MSCHF to contract a game company to make the same thing with an anime school background and cartoon avatar to guide the process.

[1] https://illegalchips.com/

[2] https://www.instagram.com/reel/CooJI8WujyJ

[3] https://stupiddope.com/2022/07/mschf-creates-eat-the-rich-ic...

Another example of an art collective bringing very cool things into existence is MeowWolf. If you're ever in Vegas, check out Omega Mart and do the full story.

https://meowwolf.com/about

This is a very entertaining real life video game experience. Big fan!

The best is the 3 story experience in Denver

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