NFT Story Collection｜Cave, Universe, Fritillaria

Hello everyone, in the cold winter rain, are you looking forward to a warm sunshine? Thanks to the invitation from the Taiwan Literature Museum and the bookstore, which gave me the opportunity to interview Chuanbei Mu, and let the Chuanbei hen shake (my photo sticker) to find the chicken father.

Now that I have the opportunity, of course I would like to say hello to Tez Dozen 's creative process. In addition, TezDozen has been sold out, and the floor price is more than five times, so there is no suspicion of confidence. Let's go back to the original intention of the creator, the following does not constitute investment advice.

In the past few months, I have written quite a few articles about various types of creators stepping into NFT. I have written about video, AI art, generative art, and even folk music. I also explore the final frontier of NFT by myself. This time, the focus has returned to the public's field of vision, and I want to use Chuan Fritillaria to tell the craze of illustration and profile picture NFT (PFP, Profile Picture for short).

Joining the team as a case taker and entering the NFT market, what do image creators think?

A brief introduction to Fritillaria

Chuan Fritillaria, of course not her real name, is the same as mashed soybeans. Before releasing NFTs, he was already an illustrator with a crowd base. Started as a newspaper supplement illustration, it was a golden age of newspapers as a medium. His works have been featured in The New York Times and The Washington Post, but for now, Chuan doesn't need to walk around under these names. Chuan's style has become known to everyone, though strong but warm and subtle; in addition to this, he is a writer and has published two books that are once again in a class of their own, with visual features outside of Chuan's .

Therefore, Chuan Beimu has the dual creative identity of illustration and writing at the same time.

In the order of last year, it looks like this. Chuanbei first has pictures, then texts, and finally NFTs.

In the first half of last year, Chuan Beimu completed a new book called "Becoming a Cave" (the one in the photo), which is a book with 51 illustrations and 51 short stories. The pictures in this book are taken from the past ten years and scattered in various commercial commissions and personal creations. They are spread out and linked horizontally. Each picture has text behind it, which is a short story, which can be read together. , can also be read independently. Regarding the book review of "Becoming a Cave", I think Mr. Sun Ziping has written very enjoyable, and added a link in the message.

cave universe

For Chuan Beimu, creation and case-taking are separate, as are drawing and writing. However, there may be a vague narrative connection between cases, because even if it is a case-received work, there is still room for creative interpretation. This space, I call it the universe of the river. And in this universe, "Becoming a Cave" was born. Chuan Beimu said that some clients would expect to see works that are very "Chuan Beimu", but for Chuan Beimu, every time a case is received, it is a new creation.

This spirit can be traced back to the era of supplement illustration. The relationship between the article and the illustration is not absolute, but the illustration is a new interpretation of the literary work by the illustrator. Chuan Beimu felt distressed about the articles that were written very hard, because of the limited space for creation. In addition, in order to illustrate the article, Chuan Beimu had to read a large number of supplementary articles, and over time, she also published a book.

But "Becoming a Cave" is reversed. There are paintings before words. The text is the process of depicting the entire Chuanbei illustrator universe, and finally becomes a cave. There are many egoistic, interpersonal, and illusory journeys in the cave.

Plato has a cave allegory, and Fritillaria has become a cave. The allegory of the cave is a group of prisoners describing the delusional real world through the light and shadow on the wall; becoming a cave is that the characters in the picture book inquire about their inner self and then interact with the outside world. Figures are abstract, words are concrete.

After the book was completed, Chuan Beimu jumped into the infinite hell of TezDozen.

Creation at the speed of light

As the saying goes, one day in the currency circle is ten years in the world. My interpretation is that because the iteration speed of the cryptocurrency world is too fast, those who practice in it need to take more risks than the outside world, but of course they can gain a lot of experience, referred to as the spiritual time room.

In terms of project parties, TezDozen is closer to the above description than other PFP project parties.

Because the 3360 animal NFTs issued by TezDozen are issued in 12 echelons. The sales strategy of most projects is a wave of sales, and the sales are gratifying, and the slow sales are rubbish. Even though it was slow to sell at first, and later staged a project that reversed miracles, the main tone of the entire NFT metaverse is still more FOMO than FOMO.

For Chuan Beimu, the release in 12 echelons means that he must constantly draw new animals in the eternal catastrophe that is released every five or six days. It was a months-long practice, and to put it mildly, these animals were iterated 12 times, and looking back, it was terrifying.

Cavemen and Zodiac Signs

Briefly introduce TezDozen, which has ended. This is a PFP project party established by Aran (Wang Xinren) and Chuan Fritillaria. It issues 3,360 animals of the zodiac and publishes them on the Tezos blockchain. Tezos is jokingly called kindergarten, chain of poor people, good pork in Huangzhou, and the rich look down on it. But also because of the low fees, many artists sell a large number of works on it, which is a creator's paradise with very high volume. According to last week's volume report, Tezos' community activity ranks second in the entire public chain, second only to the Bitcoin community. (Although I think it's weird to be able to embarrass Ethereum)

I think the style of Fritillaria is very suitable for Tezos, and his zodiac animals also have a strong Chuan style. The elements inside are mysterious creatures, flowers with eyes (devil's eyes?), colorful moths (magic moths?), coconut shells (the gerbil Dandan's drifting coconut message?), these elements are difficult to make. People don't think of the creatures that appeared in "Becoming a Cave", such as Hell Volcano, Silent Horse, Chuan's Luminous Butterfly, and Golden Eel. And every little creature has a story behind it.

Friends who hope to hold TezDozen will collect "Becoming a Cave" to supplement the Chuanbei universe setting set. Chuan Beimu did not explicitly state the connection between the two, and even Chuan Beimu himself may not have thought of connecting the two, but his visual elements conveyed everything.

You can browse the beautifully bound books while admiring the NFTs you hold, and take a closer look at what elements are hidden in these NFTs and whether they are related to books. The daigo flavor in this is only available to those who have both.

When I write it, it makes people feel FOMO again, which is not my intention.

Back to the creative process

Introduce the NFT issuance process of PFP, so that everyone can master the fun. Broadly speaking, I think that PFP is a kind of generative art (Generative Art), the core meaning of which is rarity (Rarity). The creator must create a set of elements and a set of rules, so that collectors can roll a unique set of elements when purchasing.

For example, in the TezDozen Team μ #001 (pig and pig echelon No. 1) drawn by Chuan Beimu, the object elements were drawn by Chuan Beimu respectively, and the probability and rules of element appearance were formulated by Aran, and the actual finished product, Held by collectors with wallet addresses ending in MwMm.

The elements of this pig are: a sheep head skull branch in the right hand, a skull moth parked on the left shoulder, a cigar in his mouth, a necklace with magic eye elements on his neck, and a bunch of small faces on his clothes Kong, a bird on his head, and the small round sunglasses seem to be relatives of Miyazaki's red pig.

The pig above is a random example of mine, and the other 3359 NFTs are also full of such complex but harmonious objects, which more or less have their own style in the Fritillaria universe.

Among them, TezDozen also has a very special rarity called Art Original. In addition to the repeated elements, Chuanbei also draws the prototype of each echelon animal by hand. For example, my big-headed Chuanbei hen is Art original. Also my only one. My chicken is wearing dewy lotus leaves, holding a broken-shell chick in my hand, with a line of tears on my face, and another worm. Like mashed soybeans, like a newborn calf exploring the whole world, it really makes me love it more and more.

Generative PFP, more difficult than imagined

With such an elaborate and complex design, please continue to let me explain the difficulty. The animals released later must be compatible with the elements that appeared earlier, but each animal has different postures, species, expressions, coupled with the extremely short drawing time, so that multiple restrictions are placed on Chuanbei (and Aran). . In addition, Chuan Beimu is very careful about the completion of his own creation. He admits that he is about to ruin himself, especially during the release period of Ma and Sheep.

At the same time, I have also witnessed the collapse of Aran on New Year's Eve, just to adjust the probability of pigs.

I have been paying attention to and investing in the entire project and community since the release of Mouse. In fact, I also unknowingly accompanied the evolution of Fritillaria in the metaverse. I recently finished watching "Becoming a Cave", which kind of complements the whole vision. The pleasure of the narrative. Coupled with the interview with Teacher Chuan Beimu himself, everything came to a successful conclusion.

community of supporters

Finally, compared with the recent hype of the NFT community, Chuan Beimu herself has its own space for operation like her works. Chuan is very grateful to TezDozen for letting him join the NFT distribution plan, allowing him to reach new groups. Chuan thinks that it is impossible to generate so many people's support by publishing it by himself (I am very doubtful about this). According to Chuan Beimu's observation, he found that the NFT community is more accustomed to frank praise works (loudly with love) than other community accounts such as Instagram.

In the end, I also shared with Chuan Beimu that a cute community suddenly appeared because of these little animal avatars, and many cute stories happened here, and I will share with you slowly in the future. (You can look forward to Sanli TV this Saturday).

In the end, I secretly tell you that at the end of March, we will carry out an unprecedented public welfare action on Chuan Beimu's cat cat NFT (no, isn't the cat not in the zodiac?), the school cat of each university is blessed , stay tuned.

Disclosure of Interests: This interview is organized by the Taiwan Literature Museum's "I Have to Love" interview plan and an interview with Chen Peiying , an independent bookstore cited bookstore in Taichung. It is based on Lin Hengtai's Japanese poetry collection "The Sound of the Soul" to encourage Taiwanese creators. Part of the project for the museum merchandise "Zhi Zang". Collection of National Taiwan Literature Museum : Taiwan Literature Story Project.