Citystage is a service which aims to merge the sound of the city with the art of buskers, creating a direct and strong connection between artists and audience, spreading the street music to everyone.
The project is the result of the one-week workshop Smart and Slow, held by Elizabeth Sikiaridi and Frans Vogelaar at Politecnico di Milano. The two designers wanted us to reflect about the city of Milan and to help people be aware of the environment they live in. Having in view the huge change that it’s going to affect it because of the Expo, we had to design a service able to influence people behaviour during the six months of the international exhibition as well as after the end of the event.
Imagining to randomly walk around, we suddenly visualized a tram passing by, cheerful people laughing, birds singing in the park with the whispers of trees, songs of buskers mixing to the voices of people...
Citystage consists of a mobile stage, which moves from one place to the other like a nomad, and a digital platform which enables people to follow street musicians.
The nomadic stage is a simple structure made of fabric and wood. It not only enables buskers a better platform to perfom; it also echoes the recorded sounds that come from the city. The people can just chill inside this stage when it is not used by a busker and discover the sounds they did not pay attention before.
The digital platform is the perfect tool to create a longlasting connection between buskers and audience, becoming a sort of community.
_Buskers can book the place of each performance, see their followers and upload samples of their music to let people knw them even when they’re not playing;
_Audience can follow the buskers and suggest or vote for possible future locations for the events.
_Audience can follow the buskers and suggest or vote for possible future locations for the events.
The whole service is organized on three layers:
_buskers’ daily performances on the stage, tracked on the platform;
_monthly small concerts around the most popular buskers;
_yearly street festivals arranged according to the votes of the year.
_buskers’ daily performances on the stage, tracked on the platform;
_monthly small concerts around the most popular buskers;
_yearly street festivals arranged according to the votes of the year.
