Each of the editions of Dutch Electronic Art Festival has a specific theme, which structures the contents of the event as a whole.Under the title Affective Turbulence: The Art of Open Systems, the theme of DEAF04 focuses on the instability of open systems and feelings as the essence of actions that affect and influence these systems.

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the Cold War was no longer the defining element in our view of the world, euphoria about an open Europe and an open society was widespread. However, increasing globalization has demonstrated that the world as an open system entails more than the spreading of cultural diversity and open markets. Since 9/11, openness has become associated primarily with feelings of insecurity and is regarded as a threat to our own surroundings and identity.

During DEAF04, a number of provocative art projects will address current social and political issues revolving around both open and closed systems. Interactivity plays a central part in this, as it defines the way we think about such systems. Within this thematic framework, DEAF04 presents interactive art as an open system continuously creating new relationships.

Feeling is the engine of our actions. It has recently been demonstrated that we never do anything purely rationally. This is true of almost every human action - we cannot make a decision without relying on feeling or intuition. Interactive art - art the viewer must do something to in order to make something out of it or have an experience - is an art of feeling. Every interactive work tries to entice its user to perform certain actions, in the hope that the work will thereby reorganize itself into an unforeseen coherence. Interactive art is by definition non-autonomous and organizes itself as an open system, which functions via the exchange of matter, energy and/or information with the environment (i.e. the visitor).

DEAF04 will show projects concerning an interactive art that functions as an open affective system, as a means of calling forth feelings and making them visible, from the individual to the global level. During the festival, this interactive artistic approach will be expanded to other disciplines, towards a better understanding of the basic principles of interacting-on-feeling.