Small World describes Dan Peterman’s sound piece Waterways as a “sonic document of canoe travel through the International Port of Chicago, the little Calumet River, and the I&M canal - the last great American waterway built during the canal era. From industrial harbor to tadpole pond, these waterways once linked the Gulf of Mexico with the eastern seaboard and opened up a flow of goods and people that fueled westward expansion and Chicago’s robust growth.”

Waterways was edited from the original soundtrack “Waterways: Chicago to Utica,” a video project realized for the Heartland exhibition, which was co-produced in 2008-2009 by the Netherlands’ Vanabbe Museum and the Smart Museum in Chicago.