In addition to all the live performances happening in Kitchener this past weekend, Open Ears visitors could encounter a number of sound installations in galleries and other public spaces around town. City Hall had Gordon Monahan's "Syncopated Precipitation" (2009) in the fountain out front, dropping water in random patterns onto amplified cymbals. Both Janet Cardiff's "Whispering Room" (1991) and Micheline Roi's "Obsolescene" (2009) used miniature speakers to amplify disembodied voices within otherwise vacant rooms. Andrew O'Connor's "Frequent Mutilations" (2009), based on a much-loved experimental radio show that stopped airing last year after 25 years, combined four reel-to-reel tapes to produce a visceral blur of sound. And Giorgio Magnanensi's "Butterflies" (2009) connected an oscilloscope to a throbbing electro-acoustic recording, producing morphing images that often resembled the lepidopterist title. Best of all: all were free, and within easy walking distance of each other. (More pics below.)