Kristoffer Ørum

Kristoffer Ørum

Some of it only exists as a photograph now.

Solitary. One person decides what is documented and what is forgotten.

Works with machines that are confidently wrong.

Nothing digital about it. A screen is an object, and objects sit in rooms.

Twenty years out of art school, and back in it.

A documentary practice. Every work here has an address and a date.

On the one hand, it can be seen as an attempt to resist the grip of major platforms, their data collection, and their opaque models. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025

Ordinary objects—such as a box of detergent or a web browser—become the basis for fictional universes, playful interfaces, and alternative representations of the data embedded in daily life. Day to Day Data, 2008

Documentation: - Liveart.dk project page - Nilas Dumstrei – Mundane Heroics - Liveart.dk overview - Kristoffer Ørum – Liveart.dk profile - ANTI Festival background - Facebook event archive - Video documentation on YouTube Mundane Heroics, 2019

As Judith Butler has pointed out, an acknowledgement of our interdependence can be a basis for political communities, while Sara Ahmed highlights the possibility of an “affective solidarity” built on honesty rather than claims of innocence. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025

The work mixed factual information about signal crayfish with invented characteristics, including claims that the species can grow to 1.8 metres and possess wireless communication abilities. Signal_Crayfish, 2020

Malmö New City Hall presents a playful, speculative bureaucracy infused with hip-hop culture, where city planning unfolds through rap battles, breakdancing, and public meetings turned into performative spaces of collective decision-making. Even the City Dreams of Being Another, 2025

Participants staged live tableaux in pedestrian zones and market areas, allowing encounters with everyday passersby. Mundane Heroics, 2019

The series also exists as gallery installations, an artist's book and 3D prints; this is its web form. Would You Like to Know More, 2017

I am also tired of so-called critical art being presented through the same visual culture as fashion: the artist in their beautiful home, in front of their impressive bookshelf, or in their picturesque studio. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025

A large yellow-green crayfish was positioned in the gallery window. Signal_Crayfish, 2020

What looks like a glitch to humans is in fact a trace of the statistical modelling that drives the software. Recognised Faces, 2014

The project's visual materials referenced aesthetics from Djurs Sommerland and airplane safety folders. Djurs Øhav, 2020

All images were generated using Flux.1 diffusion models from Black Forest, on a used computer powered by green-certified Nordic solar, wind, and hydro energy. Hvidovre Makes Good Times Better, 2025

The piece functioned within the broader context of examining technological fears and the archetype of the monstrous machine. Signal_Crayfish, 2021

The work combined various media to create a cohesive environment that challenged perceptions of digital and physical reality. Mundane Monsters, 2022

A key moment features a deliberately misspelled book title: "Plummed Past" instead of "Plumed Past" (feathered past becomes "blommet fortid" - flowered past in Danish), leading to the presentation of a talking plum. Feathered Misconceptions, 2018

Bojen and Ørum’s work often moves between science fiction and popular science, with references to comic books, television formats and advertising language. The End of the Universe as We Know It?, 2007

This is a form of algorithmic seeing quite different from a human's—one that operates without narrative, hierarchy, or significance. Watershed, 2025

The work was presented at NLH Space in Copenhagen, which was run by The Organisation – Association for Artistic and Curatorial Platforms. Et Andet Rum 2, 2009

The voices are those of the people who live in them. Affluence without abundance, 2025

A central relief on the reconstructed stone, possibly once a hammer, is reimagined here as a spray can, folding historical reference into playful anachronism. The Good, the Lost, and the Beautiful, 2025

Diffused States was presented as part of *Data Fluencies: Tributaries*, curated by Roopa Vasudevan, which brought together artists working on the ways data can be resisted, rerouted, or reimagined outside dominant narratives. Diffused States (Vancouver), 2025

It is based on the belief that there is no inevitability to the current process of gentrification, it is simply one choice taken out of a million other possible ways we could develop our cities. Brownfield Wonderland, 2022

By naming the work after the processor used to create it, Ørum draws attention to the material infrastructure of digital media while simultaneously questioning the boundaries between virtual and physical experience. Coffee Lake, 2019

The exhibition featured works from 26 artists, including paintings, sculptures, photos, and video pieces The exhibition's core concept was uniquely time-based and site-specific. Where the walls weep sugar, 2025

Maps are freely available across Aalborg, and the project’s website continues to expand its speculative histories. Aalborg Is The Future, 2024

The work operated as both a functional listening device and a sculptural intervention, questioning the boundaries between surveillance, documentation, and artistic practice. Listening Without Ears, 2019

During the exhibition, the carefully worded original English text on the exhibition space’s website was gradually replaced by an unstable bilingual text, one sentence at a time. Blind Listening, 2017

Perhaps there is more hope in admitting how deeply we are all entangled. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025

Across media, the fictional creatures were presented with a mixture of pop cultural humour and the kind of scientific authority familiar from public information campaigns. Mundane Monsters, 2023

"Mundane Monsters" brought together three speculative and humorous everyday monsters in an installation at the artist-run exhibition space Bonamatic in Copenhagen. Mundane Monsters, 2023

These moments reflect our own unstable, contradictory digital selves. Speaker 1, 2026

In this counterfactual history, data is not extracted at scale but circulated within communities, adapting to local needs, languages, and cultural references. Diffused States (Lexington), 2025

The aesthetic of this space is deliberately glitchy and non-photorealistic. Watershed, 2025

The piece challenges conventional media formats by introducing poetic, disconcerting aesthetics into mainstream broadcast, encouraging reflection on surveillance, representation, and identity in the digital age. Data Kroppe, 2017

By reinserting them into the same online environments where facial recognition is used for surveillance, marketing and classification, the project subtly disrupted how automated systems construct a digital identity. Recognised Faces, 2014

Installation shots show works distributed throughout ship interior. Ebeltoft After The Flood, 2021

The augmented reality component allowed viewers to see additional digital layers through their smartphone cameras, revealing hidden "monsters" that existed only in the augmented space. Mundane Monsters, 2022

Listening Without Ears consists of 3D printed copies of everyday objects that transcribe what is said in the exhibition space and print it out. Listening Without Ears, 2019

Opening reception held Thursday 4 November at 16:00. Ebeltoft After The Flood, 2021

The Good, the Lost, and the Beautiful
The Good, the Lost, and the Beautiful See the work →