Our city has a diverse cultural profile and at least as much additional potential. Theater, opera and rock concerts are offered here in the same high quality and are appreciated by the public as jazz, ballet and literature. The constant transformations in artistic fields benefit from the fact that Dortmund is also extremely technology-oriented. In addition to IT and software production as important pillars of the local economy and the Smart City Dortmund project, the Digital Culture Lab and the newly built Academy for Theater and Digitality are also based here. We want to bring together stakeholders and interested parties from the fields of culture, science and technology to think about forward-looking ideas for life in our city and give it new impetus. This requires encounters, mediation and networking on as many levels as possible.

The BLAUES RAUSCHEN festival is one of the building blocks of these processes, as people have been coming together here regularly for years to learn from artists about how people and technology can interact in an imaginative, creative and, not least, sustainable way. Once again, the Künstlerhaus Dortmund with its Mex-Keller, which is recognized far beyond the city limits, will be the stage for international electronic sound experiments. And at Tresor.West, the festival program will be part of the “Extraschicht – the night of industrial culture” for the first time. With its nuanced program selection, BLAUES RAUSCHEN shows concretely how much the digital needs the power of the analogue – it puts artists and audience at the center, triggers food for thought and promotes dialogue.

We look forward to these encounters.