This year’s fifth edition of the festival will take place in five cities in the Ruhr area, underscoring not only the enormous artistic ambitions of those responsible for the program at “open systems e.V.” but also the will of the various municipalities to join forces. Only a few event formats manage to initiate such an effective bundling of forces within a few years. And so we are pleased that Herne is once again one of the venues for the “Signals of the Future” using loudspeakers, laser and video beams. In the Old Waiting Room at the Herne train station, international artists will use their live performances to explore the extent to which technical developments influence artistic processes and can be used to shed new light on social issues as well. It will become clear that the use of digital sound and image technology, algorithms and artificial intelligence can lead to new kinds of creative formats and forward-looking art.

WDR will once again record the stage events for its radio program “Studio Akustische Kunst,” which will give the festival and its individual events considerable media reverberation.

Get involved with previously unheard sounds and the images that arise from them and surrender to the “Blue Noise” for a while.

I wish all artists, the organizing team and the festival guests here and in our neighboring cities inspiring and successful festival days.