Caitlind Brown and Wayne Garrett are redefining what it means to make intelligent art with their radio show, EARS HAVE EYES.
According to the artists’ promotional materials, “EARS HAVE EYES is an auditory exhibition space for sound art on the radio.” It’s named for “the intersensory experience of navigating wild space at night when our ears prick like eyes squinting into the darkness.”
Airing on CJSW on the second Wednesday of each month, this project uses a variety of audio sources to ponder big questions: How does the intimacy of listening open our eyes to ideas we might otherwise overlook? What can sonorous spaces hold that physical spaces cannot? How do we look with our ears and listen with our eyes?
EARS HAVE EYES is hosted by Brown and Garrett. Caitlind curates, produces, and edits the audio exhibit based on a new theme every month. Past themes have included “ARCHITEXTURE: SOUNDS OF PLACES,” “INSIDE/OUT; DEEP DREAM,” “DARK WEB,” and “FOREST PERSPECTIVE.” The show’s first episodes were inspired by The Sounds of Earth tracks heard on the golden records aboard the Voyager shuttles that have been hurtling through space since 1977.
This show evolved from The Hibernation Project, an art installation and “domestic intervention” that began as a weekly project in 2019. It is described as
“a tool for embracing—and combating—winter in Canada. Each weekend, an open community of artists, musicians, and participants responds to a theme, installing work for the duration of one night.” The project started in Brown and Garrett’s house in Ramsay.
The Hibernation Project has since expanded “to include abstract locations spanning virtual, auditory, public, interstitial, and time-based spaces, leveraging analog technologies like radio and public amenities like parking lots as experimental venues for art.” The audio-oriented EARS HAVE EYES is one such expansion.
On the show’s website, Brown and Garrett invite artists to contact them if they are interested in participating. New works created specifically on theme will be given priority whenever possible. They welcome stories, experimental music, spoken word, fantasy, fiction, and more.
This December’s theme is “FEASTING: DELISCIOUS SOUNDS FOR HUNGRY EARS.” The episode will feature “delicious sounds ranging from recordings of food being prepared and consumed… What sounds make your mouth water? Which sounds hit your brain with a rush of dopamine?” This episode sets the table for a veritable feast of “strange, scrumptious, and occasionally disgusting sound art… Diversity is the spice!”
This January, the theme is “SUBLIMINAL / SUBLINGUAL,” and aims to explore “the strange and hazy sounds floating just out of focus — somewhere on the fringe between science fiction, tongue twisters, and the fantastic phonic frequency that can only be heard and not told.” The submission deadline is Dec. 27.
Brown and Garrett are at home in a diverse ecosystem of experimental art, and their projects are plentiful. For one day in February 2023, the DEVICE FOR LISTENING TO SNOW FALLING — commissioned by Newworks Calgary — invited visitors to interact with a conical apparatus installed temporarily on St. Patrick’s Island. The devices intended to expand “acoustic awareness” by amplifying ambient sounds along the snow-covered riverside paths of the island.
YESTERDAY, TODAY, TOMORROW is a permanent installation at the south entrance of cSPACE King Edward that features 105 hourglasses suspended overhead in glistening brass fittings. The hourglasses turn perpetually at intervals orchestrated by the weight of sifting sand.
Each January, they host TOBOGGAPALOOZA, which, according to Brown and Garrett, is “a much-anticipated annual wintertime event where participants build (or decorate) their own toboggans, and we all go sledding together!”
To see past projects, hear past episodes, and stay aware of upcoming events hosted by Caitlind Brown and Wayne Garrett, visit incandescentcloud.com. EARS HAVE EYES airs on December 11 and January 8, 8-9 p.m. on CJSW 90.9 FM.
