Dear audience, dear visitors,

artistic and political positions on questions of current social developments, presented with the possibilities of analog / digital or purely digital technology, in the dynamic format of the Pecha Kucha technology – all of this awaits you at the festival “Blaues Rauschen – Positioning in digital”.

Due to corona, the format had to be postponed several times in the last year and unfortunately ultimately canceled. We are all the more grateful to the organizers that they have followed the realization of the festival for 2021 with great persistence and that they will finally show a program in the three festival cities of Dortmund, Bochum and Essen that is up to date or even ahead of the time.

As early as the late 1990s, the organizers of open systems e.V. approached several cities in the Ruhr area with the idea of establishing a cross-sector platform for new approaches and collaborations. The first “open systems” festival took place in 1997 with Essen’s participation and support. The further development of this format into a festival for digital arts was consistently implemented with Blaues Rauschen, even then with a focus on contemporary avant-garde music. The influence and importance of digitization for all art branches involved has increased exorbitantly since then. And digital formats and forms of expression have been booming since the pandemic.

After an exciting series of podcasts that preceded the festival, I am now looking forward to new types of concerts and encounters with an open and curious audience.

Muchtar Al Ghusain
Alderman for Youth, Education and Culture of the City of Essen