THE BUSKER FALL 2019
FEATURING A NEW STAGE SOLUTION: TRIVOX
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THE RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR AUDIENCE IS MORE AUTHENTIC ON THE STREET
DESIGNERS: ABIGAIL AUWAERTER BILGISU ARDA GENÇ SAEED ILDARABADI ARLEIGH PARR
5145597 / 4764625 / 5162254 / 5156254
Lifestyle Research & Design ID5293 Fall 2019 Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering Department of Design Aesthetics
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR The street seems like a pretty simple concept, a parcel of land for people to move about. Most people wouldn’t think much more use of it. They just go through their day using it to get from point A to B. But there’s a group that sees a greater purpose. Buskers are able to use this space as a vessel to share their talents. They capitalize on the opportunity to captivate and entertain people who didn’t know they needed it. They are innovative in the way they have limited space and lack of luxury equipment but are still able to create a show for the public. They are united in their lifestyle not only on an occupational level but also on a conceptual level. Their methodology has not changed much since the early beginning of busking but they have always been able to adapt their lifestyle to a changing urban and social environment. We want to shed light into the minds of this unrepresented group. To reveal their feelings, thoughts, experiences, motivation and stories that compose them. With this new found viewpoint we hope to create an innovation to improve the lives of this timeless group. Through this process we hope to obtain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a busker and highlight the value they bring to public spaces.
CONTENTS
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History of Street Performing
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Research Introduction
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Dutch Street Performing Policy
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Interviews
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Research Findings
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Ideating a Stage for Streets
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The Innovation: Trivox
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THE AGE OLD ART OF STREET PERFORMING
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We see buskers in every city. We walk past them. We stop and listen. We move on. But what is their life like outside of our short encounters with them? What do they think about our cities? What would they like to see changes in? In order to answer these crucial questions, we have to listen to buskers, what their life is like, how they feel, their thoughts, and what is important to them. We set off to major cities in the Netherlands including Amsterdam, Leiden, Den Haag, and Rotterdam to meet face to face and hear their stories and their thoughts of where they would like to see our cities progress to.
RESEARCH INTRODUCTION
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POLICIES Research on policy proved that street performing in the Netherlands is highly regulated by the government
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JAKOB PETERS
Q: Where is your favorite spot to perform? A: Dam Square in Amsterdam Q: How long have you been performing? A: One Year Q: How do you feel about the rise of social media in sharing performances? A: It has been a useful time in reaching larger audiences. Now, many people can find me and follow my music through social media. Q: What is the hardest part of performing in public areas? A: The strict rules of where you can and cannot perform in Amsterdam. The unpredictable weather is also a challenge.
Q: Why did you start performing? A: The lifestyle is very free and fun while still being able to make a good living. Q: What is your favorite aspect of performing? A: Interactions with people and the vulnerability that comes with performing in public spaces Q: Can you reflect on one of your performances that you enjoyed the most? A: I was playing at 1-3am at night with my duo and the police got called due to noise disturbance. However, they came by, had a chat with us, followed us on Instagram and told us to keep playing because we are good.
CATHERINE MOORELAND
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RESEARCH FINDINGS Our interviews and surveys gave us a lot of insight on buskers. Through observations we also noticed elements that visually link buskers to one another. Stylewise, we found two different types of street performers. The first type is the one with a unique and personalized style with several customized objects around them. The latter group seems to be very casual with normal clothing. We assume that the people who do street performing as a job don’t want to spend money on costumes
and as a result they look casual. There might also be other reasons for this. An important area of interest in our research was to figure out what street performers believed the hardest part of their lifestyle was. Through our survey we were able to determine two main troubles buskers in the Netherlands encounter when performing; rules and regulations, and weather.
The weather in the Netherlands as most know is very unpredictable and rainy with an average yearly rainfall of 700 millimeters. For buskers who predominantly rely on outdoor spaces and the tourism industry this can be frustrating. Along with the rain limiting visitors in outdoor spaces, the rain can also damage equipment or instruments. This led us to question how we can design some weather protection for buskers? Cities throughout the Netherlands, especially Amsterdam, are very strict when it comes to street performers. Most of the city is not open to street performers, which creates competition between performers for the best spots. There are also regulations on how long someone may perform and if they would like to perform longer they must apply for a permit which are only available to EU and Dutch residents. Due to these laws performers will often continuously move throughout the day and rarely stay
in the same area so they avoid fines. In terms of rules and regulations, many of the performer’s issues with the police, applying for a permit, and limits of performance locations and times require some public policy change to completely solve. We infer that many of these regulations in Amsterdam and other cities are for public safety where they do not want performers blocking traffic, storefronts, and other public spaces. Specifically, the city of Amsterdam has narrower streets than most major cities which would make it difficult for performers to share the space with pedestrians, bicyclists, and other vehicles. The city’s solution to this problem was to prohibit performers from the streets and force them into more spacious public areas such as Dam Square and Vondelpark but this limit of space has led to competition between performers. So then we thought, how can we alleviate the tension between the city and performers? The Busker
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I D E AT I O N Our brainstorming sessions focused on creating a product that would maximize the limited space and also provide some shelter from the weather. We quickly figured out we wanted to create a structure or installation for performers but then we had to determine, would our design be for individual or collective use? For the individual we thought of collapsible devices similar to a tent to protect the performer but also have the ability to be easily moved with the continuous movement that buskers do. In regards to the collective, we wanted to decrease the negative competition for space between performers. This led us to look at the crowds of viewers and how they form around buskers. Typically there are two main street performance forms, walkby and circle shows. Walk-by shows occur on streets where people do not necessarily have time to stop and watch and therefore the shows to not have a structure. In circle shows, the audience forms a circle around the performer and tend to watch the show from beginning to end. These usually happen in parks or large
public spaces because they require space for the audience to stand without blocking traffic. Since performing on the streets is prohibited in Amsterdam, most buskers do circle shows in the large public areas they are allowed to. For this reason we chose to focus on the collective and how we can take steps to use public space more efficiently. In our design iterations we played around with the shape of a circle and we could use the traditional form of audience structure in a new way. We realized that if we created a circular structure with multiple stages we could converge what would be three separate full circles into one circle around the stage. Not only does this maximize the public space but it would decrease competition between performers because visitors could watch multiple performers shows. Creating a busker stage installation would also allow tourists to easily find artists and could become a tourist attraction in itself.
low-fi prototyping
Iterative sketching potential stage designs
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E
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0.20
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4.48
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TRIVOX
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B 120°
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8 Educational Product. 7 For Instructional Use 6 Only. SOLIDWORKS
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WEIGHT:
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SCALE:1:100
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SHEET 1 OF 1
After multiple iterations we decided on our form, Trivox, which is an installation of three stages designed to efficiently use space, provide partial protection, control the direction of noise, and create a shared audience to limit competition.
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• organic form
Features Include:
• partial roof covering • customizable colors • elevated stage • platform to accept payment • adaptable design • acoustic noise control panels The idea is for Trivox to be installed as a landmark in large public spaces to give buskers a platform to show their talents without worry of fines or violations. We provide a customizable product which can be fully tailored to any city’s needs while improving street performers’ career experience. The Busker
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a guide to busking in the Netherlands with innovative solutions to the challenges of street preforming