Jun 19, 2022
PussX is not about sex.
Introduction
First PussX 0 was minted on November 20, 2021 on Opensea.io. It was a product of a month long research into the NFT space and the NFT format which can be tracked on opensea.io/treed where all the experiments are minted. As a student of architecture and practicing architecture the author had created dozens of different digital content ranging from music, tutorials, 3d printing until designing stadium stands or residential buildings. The metaverse, especially the OpenSea platform, was the great opportunity to store all of the authors previous digital artworks and then eventually use the skills and knowledge to create something which will bring a certain value to the NFT community. For the author of the article the NFT space was an amazing new window for creation as he is been studying architecture since 2007. when he enrolled to Faculty of Architecture, Belgrade University. After getting the BArch diploma, he did master studies at the Faculty of Architecture, Warsaw University of Technology from 2010 till 2012. In 2014. he enrolled to a PhD program Architectural Design Issues at Science Institute of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts Academy in Istanbul. Between 2016. and 2017. he spent one year of PhD research at the Fine Arts Academy in Vienna. On July the 18, 2022. at 14:00 the author of PussX will defend his PhD thesis with the title: “Insecurity. Architecture. Architect: Pathology as an architectural design issue”. The author is a practicing architect for 10 years now, having designed more than 50.000 square meters of built space and works with young people of all ages, from small kids to university students, in the field of geometry, design and decision making.
Art history, art philosophy, aesthetics theory : these are some of the disciplines which are deeply concerned with the actual appearances, representations, interpretations of human creative potential. There are many things with which the art critique is concerned when analyzing the value of specific artwork: the idea, the level of innovation, the actual production of the artwork etc. Then one can judge art with the ideology or a specific message that it has to transfer. What is important is that in order to have any kind of relevant attitude towards the artwork one has to know and understand the general framework of how art evolved through history, and to understand the contemporary zeitgeist, the one which we all are living right now. And the ability to perform now, and perform instantly, in this very moment, is another yet quality of an artwork. At the end, the art ends up as an echo of an epoche, of each zeitgeist, and it is our collective responsibility to understand well our current position before we can now where to move next.
PussX
PussX is a product of geometrical explorations within the square provided with the NFT format. The square, the frame, the available space to do something, to perform was the starting point in exploration of the NFT art format. Together with the inspiration from ongoing NFT projects at that time, this exploration of the square moved towards the search for the specific character which will have strong geometrical representation in the metaverse. The idea was to look for the shapes which will have strong appearance in the visual representation of the metaverse and being an architect, the author knew well that this is the domain of geometry. That is, everything is in the domain of the geometry as the author had only his skills at the disposal, without the support from the developers. And PussX appeared as a character made from only 8 curves but which give generative potential so that different ideas can be easily generated using ibisPaint X android app on Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018) with a 2nd broken screen using only index finger. The big number of NFTs which were required (at least 1001 which is the end number of original OS PussX collection, currently 892 minted) pushed the design into minimalist direction but which will still provide a strong-enough visual impact in the crowded niches of the metaverse. The idea to do it on the screen of smartphone and with the finger again comes from desire to make everything light, mobile, so that the project could be developed anywhere and in anytime without need for carrying equipment and setting it up while travelling or having similar issues. The 8 curves which make the original PussX are a product of exploration with arcs and circles and from the perspective of mathematics it is just a set of curves which eventually produce a certain meaning within human perception. PussX is another proof that it is more about the actual idea than it is about the tools or opportunities. It tells of general design philosophy that what is important is what is at the hand and that relying on ones skills and knowledge is all what it takes to achieve the desired results. And since the NFT has a strong economic component, the goal was to create something that one will not want to sell.
After creating three “hills” with three arcs, and after slicing the middle one in half, there, it appeared, the female secret part shining in its full glory. The easiness of slipping into the association was astonishing and that was already the clue that this simple shape can be used to generate all sorts of different combinations. And PussX original collection started and is ongoing as an experiment where each of the NFTs in a certain way explores different possibility of creating different meanings on top of very associative composition of 8 curves. Each of the NFTs is designed from scratch using only finger because the visual consistency is one of the most important aspects of an artwork and that is why PussX has a very authentic, differentiable style.
The different layers which were then added to the original PussX include historical figures such as Alexander the Great, architecture (aqueducts, stairs, Archimedes machine), cartoons (Batman, Super Mario, Homer), hairstyles, NFT projects (BAYC, GCG, Psychokitties), celebrities (Slash, Nikola Tesla) and many more. Some of them are just another visual illusion created by adding abstract geometrical shapes. Adding just another simple geometrical shape such as circle can turn the PussX into a vending machine. So even the further experimentation with PussX is yet another level of experimenting with the geometry. But not only geometry. It is the relationship between the first layer of human perception (the visual and other experiences) and the last layer of it (memory, knowledge) which exists between the PussX and the observer. It is the very fact that simple geometrical construction can do so much on the level of human perception. It proves the fact that with little so much is achievable only that it requires right proportioning and positioning of geometrical shapes. It is about shaping in a wise way, we may say. There seems to be the story that Michelangelo spent a lot of time only looking at the piece of marble which he found good enough for the sculpture of David. Some of the PussX are made as a collage from photos of real women which also brings another yet dimension in which shapes and colors meet to create meanings. PussX may be the first NFT collection which introduced “frame” as a part of NFT design and this again is just another reference to framed paintings which is how traditionally the visual artwork is presented. Frame appears as an experiment in PussX collection but in later stage it is used to achieve the “sticker” effect of the NFT as NFTs are actually stickers which previous couple of generations tended to collect and place in albums. At the bottom line the true aesthetic lies exactly in the way we connect the geometrical elements we see: lines, dots, circles with a certain meaning. Authentic search for aesthetic is exactly at moment where we are able to relate the shapes with meanings and therefore engage with the shape as it has the meaning we attached to it. It is about the power of the relationship between the exact and specific shape which triggers a specific meaning. PussX is also an exploration of colors as each PussX has different color combinations where obviously the extremes are explored, that is, how colors and lines behave when set up in biggest contrast and so on.
PussX in the Metaverse
After first 100 mints of PussX on OpenSea it continued to be minted on Crypto.com NFT platform. And on the CDC platform it was a huge success and had gained a lot of fans and supporters. In one moment due to unexplained “Explicit content” related issues they deleted the collection without any notice. The collection which was sold for more than 14K $ in 3 months to more than 180 organic owners got deleted without any possibility for the author to correct, or explain or anyhow address the quite huge group of PussX owners. Most expensive one was 300 $ and the highest resale was 169 $. The worse part is that my other collection Dogryptos and 1/1 NFTs with mostly architectural themes, which were also being sold — they all got deleted. Even if there were PussX which had strong erotic connotation, that could have been easily solved and resolved, since all the money was eventually returned by CDC to the owners, together with the earnings. Eventually my twitter account @Treeed got suspended by Twitter due to violence of terms and so on. And after the second appeal with proper arguments the account was unsuspended by eventually got suspended again. Now another appeal is ongoing, and it is very ironic that PussX is marked as a sensitive content.
At the same moment the whole collection was again moved to OS and that’s when the author had first lesson in digital decentralization and its importance. Since the PussX was again on OS it already got almost 0.5 ETH in trading volume with 12 owners, some of them coming from famous NFT communities such as BAYC or CGC. As the collection moves towards the 1001, the author takes more time to think of ways to explore it and to finish it in just as innovative manner as it is the nature of how PussX is always able to surprise.
Eventually a very special collaboration had been made with BACC founders and community to create a generative PussX collection: “Puss XXL”. This was a great opportunity to further explore the geometry of PussX and use the power of generative tools to experiment with the creation of different meanings in the square space of NFT. The PussXxl collection is launched on Cronosbay, it has 6969 NFTs and is made out from more than 150 different layers which bring different meaning to PussX. This collaboration finally provided the possibility to explore the (re)generative potential of PussX in full scale and this time the specific location in the PussX drawing were identified to be different groups of layers such as Mouth, Body, Wings. There are 9 different layer groups which contain layers of different ambients and different traits. In this way it may be that PussXXL is also a first NFT collection where different traits actually provide different meaning of the NFT rather than just providing different appearance. Each PussXXL tells the different story as traits are combined in different compositions to provide different feelings for the observer and the holder. Each PussXXL also have one of 5 square frames which turn the artwork itself into a wall painting, a sticker, something to stand out. Frame provides addition level of importance to what is presented.
Conclusion
In the very core PussX is about fun and good laugh, no harm or disrespect intended, which is quite obvious from the artwork itself. It is intended to be a caricature, a parody on all the characters present across the NFTs collection. It is a simple PussX which can stand out in the metaverse because of its special geometric properties, which are absolutely reduced, but still capable of inspiring smile and laughter. So yes, pussx is about the sex as it is the whole psychological structure of human behavior. But what sex is: a multidimensional space which has ability to always provide authentic surprise in all levels of being, from primitive roars to most sophisticated poetry.
