Fish Creek Provincial Park Soundwalks with Chad Eastman

Take a walk at night.

Walk so silently that the bottoms

of your feet become ears.

— Pauline Oliveros, Native, 1974

Since its emergence in the 1970s, the practice of soundwalking has spawned multiple other modalities that blend physical activity with intentional listening, such as, soundsitting and soundswimming. This suggests to me that movement, not the modality, is the crux.

For me, running is a creative practice of rhythmic movement that facilitates knowledge of self and world. Through experiences of flow and immersion, running encourages the formation of deep relationships between people and places. Sound is movement, too, and moving transforms sound—not just listening to it but feeling it, moving with it, becoming it.

Fish Creek, being the second largest urban park in Canada, has many visitors who are participating in outdoor activities whether hiking, running, biking, or paddling. Running then is an effective methodology to conduct research in this park, as it mimics the experiences of many visitors who are moving at heightened speeds and physiological states.

For this second and final year of my residency with NewWorks and Friends of Fish Creek, I plan to use running to immerse myself in the soundscape of Fish Creek. The idea is to run a ~10km route multiple times in a month, at different times of day, noting what I hear and what hears me. I am curious about how the park sounds at different times of day, and running helps me traverse it more efficiently. I am curious about how my listening experience changes when running—does it contract or dilate? I am curious about how running is sound-making…music even! Feet are not only ears, they are percussion, they are voice.

Fish Creek has 100km of trails and 60km of paved pathways. I hope by the end of the residency to have traversed every kilometre of trail and path in the park, to have totally immersed myself by foot in the soundscape of Fish Creek. During the monthly public soundwalk, I will design a truncated route for us to walk and share reflections on what I experienced through the intimacy of repetition, movement, and immersion.

- Chad Eastman, 2026-2027 Acoustic Ecology Artist-in-Residence at Fish Creek Park

The Acoustic Ecology Artist-in-Residency program through New Works Calgary and the Friends of Fish Creek Park features free monthly public soundwalks guided by Chad Eastman. A soundwalk is a walk with a focus on listening to the environment, internally and externally. We hope you’ll join us on some of these contemplative and thought-provoking walks in the woods.

VENUE: Fish Creek Provincial Park, Bebo Grove (meet by the public washrooms: https://maps.app.goo.gl/BDuZBt5FK3kwUHmw5?g_st=ipc
TIME: Always 2pm
COST: Free. Please consider making a donation along with your registration.

About the Acoustic Ecology Artist-in-Residence Program:

The Acoustic Ecology Artist-in-Residence program at Fish Creek Provincial Park provides one Calgary-based sonic artist with the financial resources, time, space, marketing, and technological support to undertake a two-year artistic research residency in Fish Creek Provincial Park. Through the unique lens of Artistic Research, the program supports deep and sustained knowledge-building within a single urban wilderness environment. This project is a partnership between New Works Calgary and the Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society. Our selected artist for the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 seasons is Chad Eastman, a Calgary-based musician and sound artist, writer, and outdoor educator.