Carina Westling

Somewhat turbulent times, and a collaborative submission for the Nimbus Group

Carina Westling — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:50:12 +0000

It has been rocky, and I am dazed. But in one piece. Probably that near-life experience after effect.

Good feedback is coming through from Annika, which is delightful. I hope we get to make something more of it.

In the meantime, the Nimbus Groups is collaborating with a project that is being delivered for The Space, the new BBC cross platform initiative that is being released in May. Fingers crossed. All in the eleventh hour, of course. The deadline will be pretty tight.

And it is cold. I have been absolutely freezing today. Recent distractions have caused me to forget a number of meals, so I suspect I have lost some insulation. Best try and replenish that, if is is going to get colder now.

I really need to get the AIML files done and dusted. Maybe I will get to that this evening. I was planning to have them done already, but this collaboration needed urgent attention.

And Brighton Science Festival is coming up again soon – a welcome feature this time of year. I still haven’t made it round to Richard’s to play the piano. At all.

Public Secrets by Sharon Daniels

Carina Westling — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:51:58 +0000

Public Secrets is a truly engaging work for the digital screen. It treats issues like inside/out, utopian vision, and the secret dehumanisation that goes on within areas of “dark play” in Western society. Highly recommended. Make your own mind up about it.

Stoke collaboration

Carina Westling — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:32:25 +0000

We have just submitted our first paper. Fingers crossed!

Annika & me

Carina Westling — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:33:25 +0000

I am looking a little worrisome even before the show.

The Swede in Berlin

Carina Westling — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:47:26 +0000

It went really well! Annika was very happy, the opening was very well attended, and the feedback was great. Phew. Gerhardsen Gerner is a really nice space, just by the river. You can see the grey waters from the windows along the back wall.

Berlin was pretty cold, much colder than here. And as we spent most of the time in East Berlin, there was a nice, grey DDR ambience in the drizzle and driving wind. Some class brutalist architecture around Alexanderplatz.

After the opening, we piled into various cars and went to Kosmetiksalon Babette, which was a showcase for DDR glamour – on Karl-Marx-Allee, the ultimate communist boulevard statement (if there is such a thing).

I was completely drained the day after, and spent hours in the hotel with my laptop. Annika had a really frightening encounter with a psychotic taxi driver as she headed back the night before, and just hearing about it shook me. Luckily, she was OK.

Some photos below…

Click to view slideshow.

Berlin

Carina Westling — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:52:30 +0000

I arrived lateish, and joined Annika and Maurice at Susan & Owen’s place in Schöneberg. Very lovely – sooo spacious, c 1910. Marvellous internal dimensions. The company was lovely, too – and the food and everything else. I just arrived at my hotel in Mitte, by way of sharing a cab with Nat, who has been curating a show at the Guggenheim here in Berlin.

Tomorrow will bring preparations. Right now, I will prepare by going to bed.

Applications, cocktails, good company & more

Carina Westling — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 23:34:54 +0000

Dinner and some serious application of thought to the forthcoming application with Jamie. Quite productive, though constructive output didn’t kick in until the day after. But that’s fine, I got some things down.

A lovely weekend ensued.

I couldn’t resist putting this in here:

Moonlit singing – just for me

Carina Westling — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 22:06:18 +0000

A moment of sheer delight: three young women singing spine-tinglingly beautiful, complex three-part harmonies (strangely modern sounding, but I think it was mediaeval), in the alleyway just outside my window, as the moon peeked up above the roofline of the taller buildings on the other side. I was their secret audience of one. Absolutely gorgeous.

The Swede – in Berlin, 20 January

Carina Westling — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:29:30 +0000

Little Brighton is fairly quiet

Carina Westling — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:11:34 +0000

Right now, anyway. That won’t last. It is actually quite nice. Sweet place, in its own quirky way.

Sleep has been disturbed the past couple of nights, and I can feel sanity slip away. That has to stop. I need to be able to think clearly and act resolutely – neither of which benefits from sleep deprivation.

We had an idea about how to test for engagement with music this morning, along the lines of how infants are tested, but for adults. For now, directional sounds seems the way to go, but could be emphasized by using a single source, and slightly too low volume. Worth trying.