ELEMENTA PURA

We have abused the resources of our planet for a long time – now it has had enough. The seven elements have come alive and they will make sure that Nature is given the respect she deserves.

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"It’s the thirty-fourth century, and we have found gods. Or rather they have found us. For all we know they were always there, in the basement of the universe, and just never had a reason to reveal themselves to us before. It’s only now, after we have burned the forests and poisoned the seas, that our exploitation of Earth has forced them to rise up. Each of the seven elements that build up our material world has sent forth its champions, its defenders. Their appearance was our last warning. We shall either cooperate and work with them to restore the earth or… Well, if we don’t respect the earth, it will now no longer respect us. Fire will not burn, water will not nourish, and metal will bend. If we don’t pass this test, the future of our species shall be rather bleak indeed. If we learn the rules of balance, though, and earn our new companions’ approval, it might just be the thing to take us from the road to self-destruction we put ourselves on those centuries ago. There is no saying what marvels we may discover."

  • Note from a survivor, Earth, Year 3321

Background

We saw the announcement for the Hackathon and immediately knew we had to participate. This is our very first project together, as a team of two. We knew we're able to deliver original, high-quality art. But can we deliver "utility"? As traditional artists, we usually provide art without the need for additional utility aside from the subjective artistic value of the piece. But realizing this could make or break our submission for the Hackathon, we put our heads together and started assembling possible utilities for our PFP artworks. The actual work on the PFPs only began, after we had our utility together. The final inspiration and thus the beginning of our creations came after visiting the Uniq Marketplace. The collection "Elemental Souls" was the perfect framework for the idea we had in mind. The seven elements we built our collection upon are:

  • Fire
  • Water
  • Earth
  • Air
  • Wood
  • Metal
  • Lightning

We had three distinct goals for our submission:

  1. Providing a refreshing PFP project with unique, recognizable art in the highest possible quality. Fine Art, that people would like to have displayed in their homes – in addition to their online profiles.
  2. The concept must be based on a story that can be endlessly expanded upon. The idea must be worthy of games, movies or series. Our project shall provide a framework that the community (developers, regisseurs, players) can then further expand and enhance – content- or tech-related.
  3. The concept shall work well with the Ultra platform and their vision.

The project in its final form shall consist of 77 PFPs, divided into three tiers. There will be:

  • 49 SOLO ELEMENTALS (7x7 - seven unique pieces per element)
  • 21 DUO ELEMENTALS (7C2 - the possible combinations of two elements)
  • 7 ULTIMA ELEMENTALS (wielding the power of all seven elements)

A problem we ran into: since each piece is meticulously hand-crafted with own photographic elements, finishing the collection takes more time than the Hackathon provides. In the end, aside from the hero image, we deliver only 13 out of the 77 planned pieces:

  • 7 SOLO ELEMENTALS
  • 3 DUO ELEMENTALS
  • 3 ULTIMA ELEMENTALS

What does "hand-crafted with photographic elements" mean? It means that every detail, every small item on each piece is actually an element from the photographic body of work over a span of 22 years of artist and photographer Pio Mars. Some pictures had to be taken just for the Hackathon, because the necessary elements were not previously photographed. This included, for example: feathers (for the element "Air"), a plasmaball ("Lightning") or actual fire.

We are very happy with the outcome of our pieces and curious what the future will bring. Will the collection be finished and published? Will the story get picked up by the community?

We don't know, so for now, let's enjoy the work!

MAMARS.ART

Built With

  • photography
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