I am Mag, an NFT photographer. Here is a brief profile.
NFT photographer, searching for the beauty hidden in everyday life, started his career in December 2021. He has been working as a photographer since December 2021. 5 ETH TV on the ETH chain, and is currently trying to break out of the photographic mold through collaborations and secondary works.
Following the first Ordinals collection "Ordinal Tokyo Fragments", we would like to inform you about the second collection, "Recursive Tokyo Vintage 78".
I challenged myself to create a different kind of expression from the previous Ordinals collection.
About Recursive Tokyo Vintage 78
“Recursive Tokyo Vintage 78" is a collection of abstract representations of Tokyo with Vintage elements, using the historic Vintage Sats called Block 78 and Ordinals' Recursive Inscription.
The collection is inspired by the Vintage elements of traditional Japanese shrines, fans, Japanese umbrellas, and dharma dolls, the overprinting technique used in Ukiyo-e prints, and the randomness of Generative Art.
Based on three photos taken in Asakusa, Tokyo in the summer, the artist generated over 3,000 pieces by overlaying the photos in random order and position, and carefully selected 78 pieces. All inscriptions are inscribed on Block 78 Vintage Sats.
Hope you enjoy the possibilities and coincidences of various abstract expressions that can be created from three photographs.
Leading up to the production
After inscribing our first photograph into Ordinals (equivalent to the act of minting NFT) in March 2023, I released my first collection "Ordinal Tokyo Fragments" in June 2023.
Thanks to the support, 100 pieces sold out in less than 20min and received great attention. Also honored to be owned by SpZjulian, OTO, Mera Takeru, TSITRATON, Okayaman, and other respected artists. Thank you very much.
Based on the response I received from such Ordinal Tokyo Fragments, I wanted to work on an abstract expression that incorporates the characteristics of Ordinals that I have not yet been able to utilize, and I challenged myself to create this collection.
Production Process
Considering the Ordinals techniques and elements to be used
When considering the concept for the new work, I wanted to incorporate technologies and elements that had not been used before, and "Recursive Inscription" and "Rare Sats" quickly came to mind.
Recursive Inscription is a technology that allows an Inscription to recursively (recursively) recall the contents of Inscriptions that have already been minted. I wondered if it would be possible to use this technology to create a representation that reuses as many high-resolution photos as possible.
At the same time, I was interested in "Rare Sats," a culture of adding narrative value to historical sats. I thought "Vintage" and "78" sounded wonderful, and wanted to incorporate them into my work.
Conceptualizing
From the word "Vintage," I wanted to create a motif based on a photograph of the town of Asakusa in Tokyo, which still retains elements of Japanese old-fashioned style. I feel that the town of Asakusa possesses many of the Japanese Vintage elements that I like.
On the other hand, I was quite worried about how to utilize Recursive Inscription. I wanted to incorporate Vintage elements while taking advantage of the recursive nature. So I came up with the idea of "How about randomly overlaying photos like Generative Art, while incorporating Ukiyo-e overprinting?" This is what I came up with.
Generative Art is my favorite genre of art, in which a program is used to generate a wide variety of abstract expressions. Ukiyoe is a historical Japanese painting, which is produced by printing various colors on top of each other. This led me to the technique of "overlaying three photographs, each in a single color, in a random order and position.
The three color palettes were chosen with reference to an ukiyoe print featuring the town of Asakusa: "Rokujuyoshu meisho zue Edo Asakusaichi" (Hiroshige Utagawa). (The orange was chosen because of its association with Bitcoin and Ordinals meme).
Production
The specific image generation method is as follows. (It is fine to skip over the details)
- Pick 3 photos taken in Asakusa, Tokyo in summer
- Monochromatized to red, blue, and yellow, respectively, and made transparent in order to superimpose them
- Inscribe each base photo to Block 78
- Inscribe photos are stacked on top of each other by randomly changing the stacking order and positions of the photos, trimmed to a square, and converted to SVG image
- About 3,000 images were generated by program with different parameters, and then carefully selected to 78 images by hand.
I was surprised to see such a wide variety of output from a limited number of three photographs. I hope you enjoy the possibilities and coincidences of expression in Ordinals.
About the Sale
In order to reward Ordinal Tokyo Fragments holders and those who were unable to purchase at the previous sale, we have decided to hold a private sale in a Whitelist (WL) format, with minimal BOT intervention.
In order to reward those who were not able to purchase at the last sale, we have decided to use MagicEden's Launchpad for the private sale. We really appreciate the opportunity. If the number of copies remain after that, we will hold a public sale.
Notes
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Whitelist is available in 1mint and 2mint per wallet. The application process is described below.
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Due to MagicEden Launchpad specifications, there is a limit of only 1 mint per wallet per phase, so if you wish to do 2 mints per wallet, you will need to do 1 mint each in Phase 1 and Phase 2 at different times.
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The Waitlist for Phase 3 will be an FCFS sale, so the number of mints will be over-allocated. The recipients will be selected by lottery from among those who applied for the Whitelist, and will be distributed separately.
Sale Schedule and Prices
*This schedule may be fine-tuned depending on the situation, and will be announced as necessary.
Phase1(Whitelist)
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Target: Whitelist (1mint, 1st of 2mint)
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Price: 0.0013btc
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Period (JST): 7/31(Mon) 20:30 JST ~ 22:00 JST on
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Period (UTC): 7/31(Mon) 11:30 UTC ~ 13:00 UTC
Phase2(Whitelist)
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Target: Whitelist (1mint, 2nd of 2mint)
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Price: 0.0013btc
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Period (JST): 7/31(Mon) 22:00 JST ~ 23:30 JST
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Period (UTC): 7/31(Mon) 13:00 UTC ~ 14:30 UTC
Phase3(Whitelist & Waitlist)
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Target: Whitelist + Waitlist
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Price: 0.0013 btc
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Period (JST): 7/31(Mon) 23:30 JST ~ 8/1(Tue) 20:00 JST
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Period (UTC): 7/31(Mon) 14:30 UTC ~ 8/1(Tue) 11:00 UTC
Public Sale
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Target: Everyone
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Price: 0.002 btc
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Period (JST): 8/1(Tue) 21:00 JST ~
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Period (UTC): 8/1(Tue) 12:00 UTC ~
Reservations for Whitelist
The general information is as follows. If you have any questions, please contact us via Twitter DM.
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Fill out the Google form for reservation (wallet address, Twitter account name, and desired number of copies). If you do not fill out the form, you will not be eligible for the private sale.
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If I receive a large number of applications for the reservation, I will hold a raffle. In that case, please understand that there is a possibility that the requested number of tickets will be reduced.
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Priority in the raffle will be given to Ordinal Tokyo Fragments holders > those who were not able to purchase last time.
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Snapshots for Ordinal Tokyo Fragments holders will be taken until the end of the reservation form acceptance date.
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If you are not selected in the Whitelist raffle, you will be included in the Waitlist drawing.
google form for Whitelist reservations
I'm reposting it below. The deadline is 7/26(Wed) 21:00 JST / 12:00 UTC.
Conclusion
Once again, I feel that I am able to work only with the support of those who believe in my work. Thank you very much! I hope to continue working on various forms of expression in the future!
Thank you for reading to the end! If you think this note is good, I would appreciate it if you could spread the word by RT or liking it! Please feel free to contact me again with any questions or concerns!
Appendix
For your reference, I will post a link to my past notes on my NFT activities. Please take a look at them if you are interested.