Visual arts for listeners: “AugenRausch”, the new podcast by the German Museum of Books and Writing at the German National Library, was launched in mid-March 2024. The podcast focuses on images as a source of knowledge: comics, manga, picture stories, illustrations, infographics, icons – the world is full of image-based knowledge.

The first episode was released on 16 March 2024 and introduces two of the best-known representatives of the comic and illustrator scene, Armin Abmeier and Rotraut Susanne Berner. The release of the second episode will coincide with the milestone birthday of Leipzig-based graphic artist Egbert Herfurth on 5 April 2024. Subsequent episodes will feature guests such as Anna Haifisch, Manfred von Papen, Nicolas Mahler and Anke Feuchtenberger.

All of them – illustrators and comic artists alike – are caught between two stools, between free and applied art, between service and a need for self-realisation. This applies all the more in times of digital reproducibility and production.

Images have had profound meaning since the beginning of media history, for example in cave paintings and image-based hieroglyphic script. Modern-day visual worlds are omnipresent: in books and fanzines, on posters, in films, on stage, in apps and online, live. “AugenRausch” shows the richness of contemporary illustration and delights in the diversity, humour and beauty of this genre. The podcast takes an acoustic look over the shoulders of visual artists. It showcases young talents as well as the “stars” of the industry – regardless of whether they work with pen and paint or with iPad and computer.

The artists featured in the podcast talk from their studios and apartments about how they see their work, what motivates them, inspires them or drives them to despair, about their successes and what they do when “shit happens”. The podcast explores the current social significance of images as a resource as well as the economic aspects of creating visual art. Graphic novels, for example, should long since have been granted the same recognition as literature or fine art and received the same support.

“AugenRausch” is available through Spotify and Apple Podcasts.