Kristoffer Ørum
Research. Somebody is going to have to examine it.
The website keeps itself up to date. He does not.
A documentary practice. Every work here has an address and a date.
This text is generated. He decided what it generates from.
Works with animals that have not agreed to it.
A record-keeper. The website is the work.
One is pink and perforated, carrying a crown and, in mirror writing, "Find them, eat them & enjoy them" — the Danish Nature Agency's advice on the invasive signal crayfish. Signal_Crayfish, 2026
I participate in the system myself because it can grant me access to freedom and resources. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
The work combines AI-generated imagery with human-written captions, forming a dispersed narrative around how such systems might emerge—from grassroots tinkering to collectively governed infrastructures and hyper-local training data. Diffused States (Vancouver), 2025
While you are reading this text, which has been designed to be unreadable by computers, everything that is said in this room is being recorded. Blind Listening, 2017
*KAOS* is an interactive iPad app created in collaboration with poet Ursula Andkjær Olsen. KAOS, 2012
I believe that vulnerability and the recognition of one’s own inadequacy can create stronger communities than ideals of moral purity. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
The exhibition was part of a series of events organised by Kunsthal for Maritim Æstetik, which also included publications, debates, food events, and bus tours. Djurs Øhav, 2020
The works form part of Ørum’s ongoing series Även staden drömmer om att vara en annan ("Even the city dreams of being another"), offering glimpses of civic and technological alternatives rooted in joy, memory, and shared invention. Even the City Dreams of Being Another, 2025
It positions deliberate misunderstanding as a productive alternative to seamless digital communication and reliable interpretation systems. Feathered Misconceptions, 2018
My focus, however, lands on the moments of breakdown and confusion where this logic fails. Speaker 1, 2026
The show took place from 2017-08-18 to 2017-12-09, inspired by Herman Melville’s *Bartleby, the Scrivener* and its quiet refusal: “I would prefer not to.” Blind Listening, 2017
"It Sings for Us of What We Might Become" is a specially commissioned performative lecture presented as part of the symposium "ScreenShots: Desire and Automated Image" at Kunsthal Aarhus. It Sings for Us of What We Might Become, 2019
At the same time, abstract projections of colour and computer-generated sound evolve according to the same underlying logic. AutoBiography, 2011
The project contributed to the establishment of the Interspecies Library, the first archive dedicated to artists' books focused on more-than-human worlds. Signal_Crayfish, 2021
Recognised Faces is an internet application by Kristoffer Ørum that ran for a year. Recognised Faces, 2014
The resulting text alternated between objective and scientific passages and poetic or raving narratives. Roskilde Parahistory, 2009
This video asks a question that sits at the heart of our digital lives: how do we appear to a machine? Speaker 1, 2026
Original photographs were by Henrik Grønborg, with exhibition photography by Billedmageren. Depth Estimation, 2019
Call-outs have of course played an important role in making injustices visible, but when they are based on an idea of moral purity, they also create distance. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
Invisible Objects was presented at Prince Gallery, Copenhagen, from 3 June to 1 July 2016. Invisible Objects, 2016
The project examined the invasive signal crayfish species, cataloguing its chemical communication abilities in comparison to human technologies like Wi-Fi. Signal_Crayfish, 2021
The installation is accompanied by a series of AI-generated postcards that reimagine Viking life in the style of idealised holiday imagery. The Good, the Lost, and the Beautiful, 2025
The project continued themes from the "Putin's Nose" project, extending nose-based investigations into performative and participatory formats. According to the Nose, 2021
The headline read "The Inscrutable Face of Russia." This sparked reflections on how much difference there actually is between the paranoid gaze of computer surveillance technologies and that of human beings. Putin's Nose, 2019
Online, these fragments are assembled pseudo-randomly into a navigable three-dimensional space. Watershed, 2025
The project was part of Nordic Sessions II, focusing on artistic "walking protocols" based on senses, local places, and movement in urban space. According to the Nose, 2021
Putin's Nose worked at the boundary between object and image, examining how digital images not only register meaning but enter physical space to shape identity and power relations. Putins Nose, 2018
The postcards extend this blending of eras, presenting scenes where identity, memory, and cultural imagination converge and transform. The Good, the Lost, and the Beautiful, 2025
The title reflects several forms of diffusion: the algorithmic process of generating images; the grassroots spread of ideas and tools; and the physical scattering of devices across different environments. Diffused States (Lexington), 2025
The exhibition was part of SixtyEight Art Institute's two-year programme "Modes and Notes on the Local". Signal_Crayfish, 2020
In the post-totalitarian context of Latvia, where memory is often manipulated for political purposes, the work offers a reminder that the past is not fixed and demonstrates the fluidity of historical narratives. Monuments of A Fictitious Past, 2024
Through a visual language that draws on both scientific simulations and computer games, the flows of economy, knowledge and power are animated as dynamic systems. A Body Has Many Members, 2012
Aarhus'er #1 is the most expansive chapter in Kristoffer Ørum's ongoing counterfactual project "Frihed, lighed og hip-hop" (Freedom, Equality and Hip-Hop), created in collaboration with rapper Emilio Hestepis. Aarhus'er #1, 2025
One text reads: “In the bottom drawer of my fridge are a few beetroots that have been left there for so long that they have begun to leak red liquid. Qua Aqua (Beetroot Texts), 2017
The fact that they are made with local AI is important, because it provides a certain independence from the major platforms and makes it possible to work with the technology on my own terms. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
The work successfully expanded the "Freedom, Equality and Hip-Hop" series into new institutional and performance contexts. Mr. Spray, 2024
The exhibition was accompanied by the website Mundanemonsters.oerum.org and a series of interventions in the local urban space. Mundane Monsters, 2023
At the hospital, Untitled — five photographs and an orange chalk drawing in aluminium frames along the corridor, from the perspective of somebody waiting. Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care, 2026
A book, "Kolindsund fremtidsturistguide," was published by forlaget majlund in 2022 (ISBN 9788793882096) in connection with the work. Djurs Øhav, 2020
It employs a computational process to dismantle and reassemble the daily flow of news images into a navigable world built from their fragments. Watershed, 2025