Evolving out of experimental art series The Hibernation Project, EARS HAVE EYES is an auditory exhibition space for sound art on the radio. Named for the intersensorial experience of navigating wild spaces at night (when our ears prick like eyes squinting into the darkness) EARS HAVE EYES asks: what can the invisibility of sound illuminate? 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?
Local, national, and international artists and musicians are invited to submit their work, sharing spatial soundscapes, auditory aesthetics, spoken word, noise, poetry, experimental compositions, thematic interviews, and other recorded media on the radio waves across Treaty 7 Territory in Southern Alberta – and beyond.
EARS HAVE EYES is a sound art radio program airing the second Wednesday of each month on CJSW 90.9 fm in Calgary/Mohkinstsis, Golden Co-op Radio on Ktunaxa Territory in Beautiful British Columbia, and New Adventures in Sound Art – NAISA Radio, in South River, Ontario. Each episode is available by podcast on this website shortly after the airing date.
Hosted by Caitlind r.c. Brown & Wayne Garrett
Curated, produced, and edited by Caitlind Brown
Want to participate? Submit your sound art, spoken word, field recordings, experimental music, noise, or other auditory media. Your work can be old, new, or created specifically for EARS HAVE EYES. All works should relate to one of the monthly themes below.
You may submit music, but it must be experimental in nature (ie. music that is not traditionally played on the radio, or music requiring context to be heard completely).
Sound works will be selected through a combination of invited and submitted pieces. New work created for the program will be given priority whenever possible. If you intend to create new work specifically for a theme, please email ASAP. We will share more info and try to reserve time for you on the program.
The following themes are prompts rather than firm guidelines. Abstract relationships with the theme are welcome. More themes are announced on this page regularly – stay tuned!
BEFORE & AFTER: something old, something new
In honour of Valentine’s Day, our February episode is dedicated to the most important relationship you have…. that is, the relationship between yourself and yourself over time. This month, we’re seeking two works from each sound artist or musician – something old and something new. These terms are relative: “Old” could mean decades old, or it could simply be a sound-work from another phase of your art practice which you now consider closed. Similarly, “New” could mean something you make specifically for our program, or it could be a sound piece that you consider in-line with your current interests and explorations.
We’re interested in the relationship between these two pieces – the thread bindingBefore with After. You can choose to contextualize what’s shifted in your practice from your early work to your current work, or you can leave it to the listener to hear the difference, following the thread with open ears.
Submission Deadline:
January 29, 2026
Airing:
February 11, 2026
GRIEF: in it
March is one of the worst months in Calgary. Winter darkness falls across the land, but gone is the glittering white twinkle of those early snow-falls. We are in the long, interminable, muddy stretch towards Spring. This is a particularly dangerous time for human creatures: statistically, the highest rates of death in Canada transpire between December and March each year. On a philosophical level, March marks a pre-Spring mourning unfolding in each of us – grief as an expression of radical change.
For the month of March, sound artists, experimental musicians, spoken word poets, and sonic practitioners are invited to submit their sound-based work around the theme of grief. Work may relate to personal loss, climate grief, or more abstract relationships with the theme.
Submission Deadline:
February 25, 2026
Airing:
March 11, 2026
Ears Have Eyes is an artist-run initiative and is currently unfunded. Our program is hosted and edited by volunteers, for the love of sound-based art. In this spirit, we aspire to create a space where experimentation is nourished, sound art is appreciated, pre-existing works are given new ears, and an underrepresented medium finds an audience on the airwaves. Thank you to the artists who share their work with us ❤
Questions? Contact Caitlind & Wayne at EarsHaveEyes@cjsw.com
CJSW Radio broadcasts out of Moh’kins’tsis (Calgary, AB) at the University of Calgary campus radio station located on Treaty 7 land. CJSW would like to acknowledge the traditional territories of the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta, which includes the Blackfoot Confederacy (comprised of the Siksika, Piikani, and Kainai First Nations), the Tsuut’ina First Nation, and the Stoney Nakoda (including the Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Wesley First Nations). The City of Calgary is also home to Métis Nation of Alberta, Region III. CJSW would also like to note that the University of Calgary is situated on land adjacent to where the Bow River meets the Elbow River, and that the traditional Blackfoot name of this place is “Moh’kins’tsis”, which we now call the City of Calgary.
THE HIBERNATION PROJECT 