Kristoffer Ørum
An artist who makes things up about real places.
Works with machines that are confidently wrong.
Most of it was built on other people's work.
Digital art.
A portraitist. None of the portraits are of him.
Local. Copenhagen and Aarhus, mostly.
Diffused States was part of the Data Fluencies exhibition curated by Roopa, on the diverse ways artists engage with, resist, or reimagine data. Diffused States (Boston), 2025
The work was structured as a natural history museum display. 3D-printed models represented crayfish body parts modified with technological elements. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
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
At the neighbouring Museum Østjylland, speculative objects were integrated into the historical displays, including a model of an "oyster home" and interventions within exhibits about Grenå's local oyster history. Djurs Øhav, 2020
Inside the exhibition space at Sydhavn Station (housed in a former DSB kiosk), the walls were painted with abstract graffiti and AI-generated videos showed various demonstrations and concerts related to this fictional history. Frihed, Lighed Og Hip-Hop, 2023
One room was painted bright pink with beetroot juice, smelling earthily of childhood beetroot soup, and featured a Russian rap sung by a life-sized copy of Putin's nose. Putin's Nose, 2019
In the machine's failure to see me correctly, and in the unexpected beauty of its attempt, I was given a chance to see myself in new ways. Speaker 1, 2026
The publication set out the species' survival capabilities and cross-distance chemical communication systems, positioning the crayfish as superior to human technological networks in this comparison. Signal_Crayfish, 2021
Once generated, these daily phantom faces replaced Ørum’s personal avatar across his website, social networks and other platforms. Recognised Faces, 2014
Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care is a twenty-minute video, one of nine works Ørum showed in FORSTADIER / Precursors — a duo exhibition with Aske Thiberg, curated by Morten K Jacobsen and Heidi Hove. Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care, 2026
The work takes up how computer technology mediates our relationship to the physical world, creating hybrid zones where digital simulation and material reality intersect. Coffee Lake, 2019
Custom software automated the browsing process by reading from the recorded history file and simulating user clicks. Auto Navigate My History, 2014
Installation shots show works distributed throughout ship interior. Ebeltoft After The Flood, 2021
The voices are those of the people who live in them. Affluence without abundance, 2025
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
The work opens itself to failure, loss of control and improvisation, embodying these conditions rather than merely describing them. It Sings for Us of What We Might Become, 2019
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
The city of Aarhus serves as both source and subject, remixed through the lens of local imagination and global street culture. Aarhus'er #1, 2025
The work was created for the group exhibition "Opløsning af Det Private Arkiv" aboard the ship Svartlöga in Copenhagen. Depth Estimation, 2019
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 project used the signal crayfish as a figure for examining digital surveillance and mapping of human movement through wireless networks. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
The exhibition featured artists working in watercolor and gouache—a medium known for its fluidity and delicate textures—even when their usual practice includes sculptural, video, photographic, or installation-based work. Qua Aqua (Beetroot Texts), 2017
The collaboration involved fieldwork where Ørum spent time with the role-playing association in their regular activities, including battles in Hansted Forest and gaming sessions. Everyday Heroes, 2019
The exhibition featured video projections, 3D-printed sculptures, wireless transmissions, two-dimensional works, and an augmented reality component that allowed visitors to view "monsters" inhabiting the gallery through their phone cameras. Mundane Monsters, 2022
The project treats these everyday activities as data sources capable of producing narratives, insights, and imaginative associations. Day to Day Data, 2008
It suggests that the media of the future may not converge into a single stable format, but instead coexist as a patchwork—some fostering clarity, others producing estrangement. Watershed, 2025
I am also tired of a “call-out” culture that too easily becomes hostile and makes it difficult to build the broad alliances we need. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
The work was structured as a natural history museum display. 3D-printed models represented crayfish body parts modified with technological elements. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
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
"Perpetual Interpreter" featured works by Kristoffer Akselbo (DK), Andreja Andric (RS/DK), Joana Chicau (PT/NL), Rosemary Lee (US/DK), Winnie Soon (HK/DK), Anders Visti + Tobias Stenberg (DK), and Kristoffer Ørum (DK). Listening Without Ears, 2019
Each of the 26 participating artists presented a single work, and the audience was permitted to view each piece for exactly one minute. Where the walls weep sugar, 2025
In art and activism, humour has repeatedly functioned as a way of exposing the absurdity of power—from Dadaist performances to contemporary meme cultures. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
Produced for Aarhus Public Libraries and published by Haandholdt, the app was made freely available through iTunes. KAOS, 2012
Rather than recognising faces, it was trained exclusively to see noses or beetroot-like patterns. Putin's Nose, 2019
Alongside the artworks, the programme includes talks, workshops and events on the histories and relevance of these vanished monuments. The Good, the Lost, and the Beautiful, 2025
The project invited citizens to have their pets gently scanned to contribute to a composite digital monster that would inhabit the area around Borchs Gård in Kolding city centre. The Kolding Creature, 2021
Using AI, familiar sites are transformed into speculative visions, such as Karolinelunden as a DIY amusement park or Aalborg Shipyard taken over by its workers. Aalborg Is The Future, 2024
Guests were invited to renegotiate their role — not just as viewers, but as potential participants in a system of storytelling, symbols, and rituals that reframed both the neighbourhood and the museum as shared sites of imagination. Game Continent, 2010
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
"Sucker Trick" is a collaboration between visual artist Kristoffer Ørum, magician Claus Mulbjerg, and architect Tomas Skovgaard. Sucker Trick, 2017