Dear friends of BLAUES RAUSCHEN, dear audience, dear guests,

the change from purely analog communication to an exchange of information that intelligently combines analog and digital solutions is a key issue in the 21st century – also for the city of Bochum. Whether with the eGovernment platform “Mein Bochum”, the “Bochum-App” or the “Gigabit City” concept, which aims to ensure that Bochum has nationwide coverage with fast broadband connections: Bochum has the ambition to become a digital pioneer.

The importance of digitalization for production and reception has also grown steadily in the field of art and culture. A good example of this is the sixth edition of the cross-city festival BLAUES RAUSCHEN.
I am therefore delighted that Bochum is once again joining Dortmund, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Herne and Witten as one of the host cities for this pioneering festival this year.

On June 5, the festival in Bochum is dedicated to the practice of “deep listening”. At the Schlegel Kultur Club, performances by three artists will explore the boundaries between acoustic sound material, field recordings and synthetic sounds.

Prior to this, in cooperation with the special research area “Virtuelle Lebenswelten” at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, BLAUES RAUSCHEN is inviting students and other interested parties to the lecture & talk event “#Machine Listening and Human Listening” at Quartiershalle.

On a total of 10 evenings in six cities, this year’s festival program will take us on a multimedia sound journey with contemporary electronic music, sound and video collages and futuristic electronic dance music with an extraordinary experience and insight value.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my special thanks to the organizer open systems e.V., the sponsors and all those who have contributed to the preparation of this festival, which is so important for our region.

I wish the BLAUES RAUSCHEN festival and its top-class program every success and a positive response.