Aku World.
A digital character you could walk inside.
Aku began as an NFT by artist Micah Johnson: a young Black boy in an astronaut's helmet, wondering if someone like him could go to space.
He lived on screens, and his fans wanted to be near him. So PHNTM built him a world you could walk into.
In a 30,000 square foot space in Wynwood, Miami, working with Matte Projects, PHNTM turned the building into Aku's universe.
Futuristic subway cars, projection mapping across the rooms, an NFT gallery and a retail space built into the story instead of bolted onto it. PHNTM handled the interactive media and coding, experiential design, XR and virtual production, and the motion graphics that held the digital and physical halves together.
The part fans remember is the 4D-scanning workshop. You stepped in, got scanned, and walked out as a custom avatar placed inside Aku's world.
That was the whole idea of the place: something that only lived on a screen, turned into somewhere you could stand.
