Robotic Sitar Ready to Tour

Hi, here at Karachi Community Radio we’ve managed to build Pakistan’s first self-playing, computer-driven, folk instrument - Saaz | ساز.

We have successfully exhibited it here in Pakistan at the Karachi Biennale and would like to take the sitar on a tour of Europe! Unfortunately, we are a self-funded community organisation and raising enough money for this tour has proven difficult.

This European tour would be an excellent opportunity for the artists, musicians and engineers who dedicated themselves to building this ground-breaking piece of Pakistani art. Our mission here at Karachi Community Radio has always been to showcase our unheard Pakistani talent to the international community, and Saaz | ساز is a massive moment for us. It's more than art, it's a modern means of preserving and promoting the underrepresented cultures of South Asia through their music. We took an underappreciated folk instrument, the Chitrali sitar, the forefather of all sitars. We brought it into the modern world by allowing anyone with access to a computer to play it. Saaz is an unprecedented advancement that could be applied to all sorts of underrepresented folk instruments.

The money from your contributions will go towards:

Accommodation

Travel costs

Visa applications

Food and drinks

Anything we make from our GoFundMe will directly help us take the Saaz team, many of whom have never been outside Pakistan, on this incredible journey around Europe. From building Saaz in a sweaty Karachi basement to packing it up for a flight, we can’t believe how far we’ve come!

Please donate what you can to help take Saaz | ساز abroad and show the international community the fantastic work done in Pakistan.