Waking up at 5am in the morning, Carlos gathers all the things he needs to play for the day, including his guitar, mic stander, a basket to collect money, two microphones in case one may break, and puts on his not-so-nice-looking winter jacket. He packed everything and runs to catch up the train to downtown Chicago. Luckily, he arrives at one of the four legal spots in CTA, at around 6am to reserve his spot. Does not start playing right away, he drinks coffee, chatting with CTA staff, who he wants to keep good relationship with. At around 8:30 or 9, the rush hours, he starts playing. He meets various types of audience. There are people who do not even notice his existence, as well as people who appreciate his music and drop a dollar or two. After palying for 3-4 hrs, another musician comes and asks whether he could play afterwards. Carlos gives the spot to the musician, counts the money on the way home, and feels satisfied that he can play music to support his family.
In our research, we find there are things contradicting with each other, which lead to our insights: three areas of tension.
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Chicago Street Musicians (Ethnographic Research)
In our user-storytelling workshop, Paul Sheetz and I did research on Chicago Street Musicians. We are learning about how to collect the right user stories during field research, how to use compelling stories to connect audience to users, rather than less meaningful bullet points of insights. Our potential client could be City of Chicago, Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, or instrument manufacture company such as Ibanez.