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Illustrating the power of web 3.0 and the connections formed from creating/sharing/collecting artwork, the idea behind PBxPB began to take shape like all great things - with collecting long form generative art, more specifically 's work on the Tezos blockchain.
From there Paper Buddha’s not-so-subtle slide into P1x3lboy’s DM’s with the inevitable question, “we should collab on an fxhash drop right?” sealed the deal and set a project in motion that would take the better part of 3 months to put together.
PB sliding into PB's DMs
Forming a team that bridged countries, continents, and artistic disciplines, Paper Buddha and P1x3lboy, toiled on their debut project for over 3 months, creating a project that symbolizes both of their artistic disciplines and embodies the signature aesthetic of Paper Buddha collage.
Before we dive in too deep, if interested in that sweet, sweet utility and securing your chance at scoring a Paper Mandala, then please feel free to sign up for theAllow Listwhile you still have a chance. If you're reading this, then you're still early.
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Post Drop: Recent Updates
Hologram, what??
Remix versions?? More color options?? Oh my!
Slap that Mandala on yo smartwatch (Pro Tip for Apple users: use the "kaleidoscope" feature, unlocks animation)
TLDR: one mint gets you 8 different variations and IRL utility for your smartwatch
Why Mandalas?
Mandalas are representative of Paper Buddha's art style as well as an embodiment of the Buddhist mentality that guides his work. Paper Buddha and P1x3lboy's collab Paper Mandalas is just a further iteration of his own exploration of the mandala art form.
$PAPER TOKEN
“A mandala is a geometric configuration of symbols…[M]andalas may be employed for focusing attention of practitioners and adepts, as a spiritual guidance tool, for establishing a sacred space and as an aid to meditation and trance induction…A mandala generally represents that spiritual journey, starting from outside to the inner core, through layers.”
(Brenner)
“The word ‘mandala’ also describes an integrated structure that is organized around a central unifying principle.”
(“Mandala”)
Similar to the grammatical framework that provides structure to a coding language, the construction of mandalas also follows a specific set of rules and guidelines that are imparted from teacher to student. According to Nitin Kumar, a monk undergoes a training period of up to 3 years before they are even ready to begin the construction of a mandala.
“Before a monk is permitted to work on constructing a mandala he must undergo a long period of technical artistic training and memorization, learning how to draw all the various symbols and studying related philosophical concepts. At the Namgyal monastery (the personal monastery of the Dalai lama), for example, this period is three years.”
(Kumar)
After this period of training, the construction of a mandala begins and can involve multiple monks working a number of days to create a mandala from start to finish. Similar to coding generative art, or accomplishing anything that requires an iterative process, the construction of a mandala is made up of a number of smaller steps that build to the bigger picture.
One of the earliest texts outlining the rules and underlying principles for the creation of mandalas is the Nishpannayogavali, or The Garland of Perfection Yoga. The Nishpannayogavali is an “Esoteric Sanskrit text compiled at Vikramashila monastery by Abhayakaragupta (act. late eleventh-early twelfth century), which consists of twenty-six chapters, each describing a different mandala used in Esoteric meditation practices.” The author concludes that the “text’s most likely readers were monks, who used the text’s mandalas for visualization practices, and artists, who followed its detailed prescriptions to construct more permanent mandalas in works of art.” (Kossak and Singer, 10-11 )
With the same set of instructions, each monk has a unique output:
Throughout the collaborative process, both PB’s contributed elements to the project that symbolized the formal practice of constructing mandalas: P1x3lboy brought his coding prowess; Paper Buddha provided the framework and the artistic aesthetic that they were trying to match. Images were exchanged back and forth as they iterated their code, getting closer and closer to the final design.
Challenges Faced, Challenges Overcome
While discussing their project, I realized that I was downplaying PBxPB's efforts at recreating Paper Buddha’s own aesthetic. I caught myself thinking of the mandala as the only generative aspect of the artwork, when in fact the entire artwork is generated by code, including the signature space background. Once I fully understood that the space background was generated, I truly began to appreciate the aesthetic that P1x3lboy had coded into the project, for it was Paper Buddha’s own aesthetic.
To capture it so completely that the background generated via p5.js is virtually indistinguishable from Paper Buddha's own space background, what an achievement!
Other challenges faced also involved replicating Paper Buddha’s art style. In the words of P1x3lboy, “there were dark days dealing with drop shadows,” but as anyone can attest, they nailed the drop shadows in the project just as they replicated the space background.
“There were dark days dealing with drop shadows”
(P1x3lboy)
The stippling blotter paper texture effect was another challenge faced and overcome during the production process. Collaboration through the iterative process helped replicate Paper Buddha’s signature aesthetic one iteration at a time.
From the beginning, Paper Buddha wanted the mandalas to display on today’s smart watches. Not afraid of a good challenge, P1x3lboy provided a creative solution to this challenge by tying the size/resolution of the image to the size of your browser screen, so pro tip if you want to display your dope Paper Mandala on your smart watch - resize browser window and then right-click save.
By the #s
“Too many zeros!”
Before you consider variations of star location, shadow size, and pattern size, there are 288,684,000 (288M+ for those adverse to too many 0s) different possibilities of mandala type, palette type, pattern type, and shadow direction
Odds of minting a mandala noticeably similar to another mandals → 6,000,000:1
27 different palettes, 2 different styles of mandalas
720 possible variations per palette for round mandalas with 6 colors
120 per palette for those with petals and 5 colors
IF all palettes are equal, 17,640 possible combinations of the outer border colors
500 editions available
100 set aside for reserve list
Dutch auction 30-20-10
Coded from scratch in p5.js = no images were harmed during the making of this project
Libraries used: Pattern.js, p5.js, and node.js
Looking Forward
Will there be a burn 🔥 in the future for this project?
According to PBxPB, your fx(hash) tokens are safe, but the first 20 mandalas minted have 👀future utility 👀.
Are there any 'secrets' or bread crumbs hidden in the code?
P1x3lboy answered with a tantalizing 'maybe.' 🤦♂️
After drop, hologram and remix color palettes were revealed as the treasures hidden within the code.
Any thoughts on rarity?
Let the community decide. Although there is a special texture effect that has a 1 in 10 chance of occurring 👀
Will there be any future Paper Mandala drops?
Very likely, but the code would be completely revamped from v1 to v2.
Paper Buddha, 50% of the team PBxPB and responsible for consuming 100% of the psychedelics harmed during production, is a psychedelic, collage artist/social disruptor famous for breaking boundaries, pushing limits, crushing milestones, and dropping digital collage art across multiple blockchains
While most artists have one, maybe two geneses (yes, this is the plural form of genesis, I checked), Paper Buddha continues to diversify and expand the reach of his artwork through supporting three different blockchains: Tezos, Ethereum, and Solana.
First XTZ drop Polaris on Hic Et Nunc on May 27, 2021
Second mint but first creation with the now classic Paper Buddha aesthetic was #002 Radiance on June 3, 2021 (also on the XTZ HEN contract)
First ETH mint on the Paper Buddha $PAPER contract Paper Buddha on November 10, 2021
Self-identifying as 70% techie/30% artist, P1x3lboy was responsible for 100% of the code, keeping Paper Buddha somewhat attached to the real world ("no, PB, it’s too late to animate the mandalas”), and turning Paper Buddha’s dreams and inspiration into coding reality.
"No, PB, it’s too late to animate the mandalas” (maybe next time though? one can hope)
Another OG citizen of Tezos, P1x3lboy was coding generative art prior to fx(hash) existing as a platform. Like a good citizen of Tezos, P1x3lboy knows which blockchain is best, but that doesn’t mean that all his eggs are in one basket. Like Paper Buddha, P1x3lboy has diversified his portfolio through minting artworks on Ethereum and Algorand as well as Tezos.
First XTZ drop on HEN contract was Ripple Effect minted on August 23, 2021
First drop Globlins on fx(hash) on November 15, 2021
First drop on Algorand was Truchet Tiles on November 22, 2021
Also, just wanting to highlight his Crystal Ball project, because I stumbled upon it one night while degen'ing into the early hours. Feel free to get lost in the design while the Crystal Ball continues to generate. Featuring Crystal Ball #54 as owned by
What if you could use code to train an apprentice? What if that apprentice was a computer?
✂️ On the left is a traditional mandala that I collaged
💾 On the right is pure JS code, no images..
📅 'Paper Mandala' comes to @fx_hash_ on the 28th
