Dear friends of sound art,

Curiosity and openness to technological innovation both are driving forces behind this festival. For nearly ten years, BLAUES RAUSCHEN has continuously reinvented itself: New venues, new acts, new inspirations that illuminate the relationship between human and machine, analog and digital, at the intersection of art, technology, and society.

The Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL) has supported the festival since 2018 with smaller grants from the LWL Cultural Fund and now, for the second time, with a larger amount from the LWL Cultural Foundation. In this longer-term perspective, the open systems e.V. association proves to be agile and forward-looking as a significant cultural force in the digital transformation: It expands its cooperation with international partners and, through new venues in the Westphalian Ruhr region, widens the festival’s cultural network.

In Bochum, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, and Herne, it opens spaces for sound, experience, and discourse, accompanying the structural transformation of the Ruhr area in the digital age through outstanding artistic positions.

BLAUES RAUSCHEN experiments with the creative potential of AI in artistic contexts, never losing sight of the questions about its effects and interactions. This very approach also forms the basis for the funding focus “AI & Culture,” under which the LWL Cultural Foundation will present a diverse cultural program in 2028.

For this reason, we are especially delighted by the inspirations and points of connection that BLAUES RAUSCHEN already provides on this socially relevant topic in 2026.