Prog-Walk: Ambient Listening at False Creek (East)

Meeting location: At the Birds sculpture in Olympic Village Square (between Manitoba and Salt Streets) [map]
Bus/sky train stops, along with pay parking/meter parking are located nearby

Accessibility information: The walk consists of self-directed exploration and opportunities to sit, with short stretches of walking between locations. Each section of the walk is wheelchair accessible.

This 2-hour time frame includes approximately 1 hour of walking plus an introductory and closing discussions.

This soundwalk structures the Olympic Village area of False Creek into a series of ambient listening stages. Each stage will include an optional prompt for imaginative ways the space can be heard.

False Creek’s identity is layered over millennia of Indigenous history and decades of urban pivoting. Originally a clamming, fishing, and hunting cornucopia, it has since been used as heavy industry zone, working class neighbourhood, Expo-86 site, Olympic Village, encampment area, and residential tower block. After a brief spell as an empty condo “ghost town”, its current situation intersects luxury, poverty, nature, and industry.

This soundwalk approaches the former Olympic Village area as a theatrical site that presents a unique diorama and tricky sense of space. Its rambling design invites playfulness as the complex almost surreality frames out visual and sonic nooks, depths of field, and industrial/natural backdrops in relation to itself. Pleasing angles and anonymous paths invite a touristic sensibility, while tensions between proscribed and desired uses also play out. From this context – the space as complicated recreation zone – we will encounter listening opportunities, ambient environments, and audio-visual contrasts.

BYO listening tools/field recorders if you wish!

Download the Soundwalk listening prompts here.