I moved into a new place a few months ago so inevitably I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about how to make it a little more comfortable and home-y, and I was thinking about how cool it would be if someone made sort of floating, ribbon like sculptures of certain roads, tracks that would show the undulating nature of that area’s elevation changes. While it doesn’t look like that exists (yet) I did find these nice laser cut wood representations of classic circuits made by Linear Edge that you can hang on your wall.
They offer a selection of pretty much any circuit you can think of, from the American power tracks such as Road America & Laguna Seca to the windy Isle of Man TT course or the Nurburgring in its various layouts. They even have my alma mater, Limerock Park.
I like understated stuff like this- kind of looks like an inoffensive abstract shape to the layman, but to people who know about motorsport, these simple shapes can evoke a powerful image; an inanimate decorative object that holds movement and excitement within an obscured context.
After nearly two years of living mostly out of my car and spending every penny to my name I am proud to finally announce that my new portfolio is complete (for now). When I first came up with the idea to create a new portfolio, I had no idea that it would be such an intense undertaking and that it would take this long. I also never expected myself to create 62 entirely new projects for this new portfolio. You’ll notice that there’s no longer anymore portraits under this website name. I created an entirely separate portrait website which is linked through this one.
I hope you all enjoy the new imagery and stories and I’m incredibly thankful for everyone who supports my work. I’m at a loss for words right now because I feel like I’m watching my first born kid drive off to college.
If anyone has any questions or comments or if I happened to have missed something (hopefully I didn’t…) I’d love to hear back from you in the comments or reach out to me via my contact page.
Tycho sunrise DJ set on the Disco Space Shuttle at Burning Man on Friday, August 29th, 2014. Thanks to everyone who made this morning special and of course all my love to everyone at Apogee Camp, best burn yet!
Special thanks to: Nitemoves (Rory O’Connor), Heathered Pearls (Jakub Alexander), Rob Garza, Christopher Willits, Kiyoka, Katie B. , DJ Dane, Clark, the Dusty Rhino crew, Seth, Tobias, and the whole Disco Space Shuttle crew.
Track Listing:
>> SET BEGINS – APPROX 5:40AM
Slag Boom Van Loon – Poppy Seed (Boards Of Canada Remix)
Boards of Canada – Olson
Clark – Tooth Moves
Manitoba – Dundas, Ontario
Atoms For Peace – Dropped
Tycho – Dye
Photek – Pharaoh
>> SUN RISES AT APPROX 6:20AM
Ulrich Schnauss – In All The Wrong Places
Tycho – Awake
Bibio – À tout à l’heure
Airbird and Napoleon – In The Zone
Tycho – Awake (Com Truise Remix)
Psychemagik – Cosmic Forest
Cos-Ber-Zam – Ne Noya (Daphni Mix)
Leon Vynehall – Time
Leon Vynehall – Be Brave, Clench Fists
Fort Romeau – Jetée
Dauwd – Lydia
Mirror People – Kaleidoscope (Psychemagik Remix)
Mano Le Tough – Primative People (Tale Of Us Remix)
16 Bit Lolitas – Deep Space Girls (DAVI Remix)
Dauwd – Heat Division
Tycho – L
Lancaster – Beachy Thing
Panama – Destroyer
>> EMBRACE SCULPTURE BURN BEGINS
White Denim – A Place to Start
Washed Out – Amor Fati
Little Dragon – Little Man (Tycho Remix)
Moths – Heart
White Denim – Street Joy
“For years, I’ve imagined the work I do in music, photography, video/film, immersive audio and meditation all coming into one space,” says music-art guru Christopher Willits from his home in San Francisco. It’s an ambition that seems especially befitting of a worldly polymath like Willits. “Sound and light can transform and inspire our imaginations,” he continues. “It can be used as a tool to awaken our consciousness.” And that is exactly what he has set out to do with OPENING, the veteran Ghostly artist’s new immersive audio-visual project.
Across seven tracks of widescreen ambient music, 45 minutes of visuals shot over four years in multiple countries, seven photographs, and a multi-sensory, multiple channel live performance, Willits has created something which might better be thought of as an experience than a simple album. OPENING features Willits’ latest music since Ancient Future, his 2012 collaboration with Japanese pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto, and his recent production and mastering work on Tycho’s Awake. The vibrant, enveloping sounds we’ve come to expect from him are on full display. The quiet majesty of “Vision” ushers us into the sacred world Willits creates, a living universe that billows and heaves alongside slow-grooving songs like “Clear” and “Connect,” or with the textural minutiae and harmonic subtleties in “Ground” and “Now”. Closing out the album, “Wide” and “Release” offer the listener a gentle comedown through 15 minutes of transcendent audio, with Willits’ delicate guitar manipulations breathing life into the aether of finely textured atmospheres and soft-glowing synths.
The other integral facet to the experience of OPENING is Willits’ visual work. After building a library of images from his travels around California, Hawaii, Japan, and Thailand, Willits is unveiling an abstract narrative film, with seven scenes that correspond with the seven songs from the album along with seven limited edition photo prints. The 45-minute film interfuses music and a first-person perspective of meditative scenes—inspiring nature sections reminiscent of the films Baraka, Koyaanisqatsi and Planet Earth—to create the space of OPENING.
Willits says, “There are no actors or dialogue in this film. The audience and their perception is the main character, and everyone’s imagination is going to create some meaning that’s relevant to their own experience. My intention is to create a space where people can open up and expand into, relax and recharge.” OPENING is unlike anything Willits has accomplished before, perhaps because the audio-visual project is about expanding one’s mind to invite something new. Or, as Willits puts it, “For me, OPENING is about transformation, the experience of changing oneself to be more of who you know you can be, and, ultimately, the joy that comes with that change.”
