Kristoffer Ørum
Research. Somebody is going to have to examine it.
Some of it only exists as a photograph now.
An archive with gaps in it, kept by the person who made the gaps.
Nothing digital about it. A screen is an object, and objects sit in rooms.
An artist who makes things up about real places.
A record-keeper. The website is the work.
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
Putin's Nose was a multi-year project that sought to turn surveillance systems' simplified identity categories and tools against themselves. Putin's Nose, 2019
Visitors encountered these figures both inside the museum and in everyday spaces, such as the local supermarket, where baguettes from the freezer section served as swords. Game Continent, 2010
Spray was a counterfactual exhibition that used AI to tell the story of a fictional relationship between the labour movement and hip-hop culture. Mr. Spray, 2024
In Copenhagen, at Live Art for Kids the project took shape in courtyards, playgrounds, and cultural centres. Mundane Heroics, 2019
Being your own record-keeper means accepting these gaps and changes.
Ander Bojen & Kristoffer Ørum’s contribution combined personal narrative, historical research, and speculative urban theory to question how collective experience and perception shape the city. A Subjective History of Gdańsk, 2011
Some of the objects broadcasted content directly through custom-built wireless networks. Invisible Objects, 2016
This approach shares a lineage with experimental practices such as Surrealist automatic writing and collage. Watershed, 2025
The invasive biological species served as an analogy for invasive digital technologies and data collection systems. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
By working with AI models trained on biased and incomplete datasets, DIFFUSED STATES engages with both their limitations and their possibilities. Diffused States (Vancouver), 2025
Tank Hip-Hop established the methodology of using counterfactual storytelling to construct alternative Danish histories. Tank Hip-Hop, 2022
The project connected personal memory (the grandmother's nose) with political imagery (Putin's face) through everyday objects (beetroots) and digital mediation. Putins Nose, 2018
It positions deliberate misunderstanding as a productive alternative to seamless digital communication and reliable interpretation systems. Feathered Misconceptions, 2018
The artist-run space Spanien 19c used to be located in a messy and unregulated, but fairly central, part of the increasingly gentrified city of Aarhus. Brownfield Wonderland, 2022
Hydrographic prints on cornstarch included text "NO pearls or seaweed in the toilets!!! they are getting clogged" (2021). Ebeltoft After The Flood, 2021
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
Over the past year, I have created a series of self-portraits using locally run AI. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
By working with models that reflect the biases and gaps of their training data, DIFFUSED STATES treats these systems not as definitive or universal but as provisional, adaptable, and open to reinterpretation. Diffused States (Lexington), 2025
The art world overflows with images of beautiful, smart, and confident artists. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
By framing the narrative as a myth, the artists connected the story of The Ballehage Woman to broader experiences of people excluded from society due to norms around appearance and behavior in Denmark. The Ballehage Woman, 2009
In Putin's Nose, a pattern recognition program cast a paranoid-critical gaze upon the exhibition's visitors. Putin's Nose, 2019
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 resulting text alternated between objective and scientific passages and poetic or raving narratives. Roskilde Parahistory, 2009
The project examined the invasive signal crayfish species currently displacing native Danish freshwater crayfish. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
The work took the form of an artist's book featuring a 3D-printed signal crayfish sculpture on the cover. Signal_Crayfish, 2021
Presented by Anders Bojen and Kristoffer Ørum as part of the MFA 2004 Degree Show at Goldsmiths, London, UK, the work was exhibited from 22 to 26 July 2004. In a Dark Room/a Storm in a Coffee Cup, 2004
The exhibition consisted of stencils painted with beetroot juice, 3D-printed noses and beetroots, inkjet prints, a webcam and screens of various sizes with nose recognition, texts and animation. Putin's Nose, 2019
Everyday objects were recognisable yet altered. Mundane Heroics, 2019
The project replaced advertising posters at Sydhavn Station with what appeared to be an information campaign about the development and dissolution of the welfare state from 1872 to 2001. Frihed, Lighed Og Hip-Hop, 2023
They function as my avatars on social networks in an ongoing performative investigation. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
How might civic memory be shaped not by permanence and power, but by shared breath, transient gatherings, and structures built to dissolve? Monuments of a Fictional Past (Kraków Edition), 2025
The project builds on Ørum's ongoing work "Freedom, Liberty, and Hip-Hop," which envisions alternative Danish histories. Monuments of A Fictitious Past, 2024
Facial features in the collected images were identified using Stasm, an open-source software package for facial recognition originally developed for biometric applications. Recognised Faces, 2014
The project is a labyrinthian installation composed of hand-printed cardboard boxes, arranged to create interconnected spaces. In a Dark Room/a Storm in a Coffee Cup, 2004
In this way, Ørum reconsidered the relationship between national identity, food, body and surveillance, hoping to open up an identity model where it is possible to be foreign, Danish, body and digital representation at the same time. Putin's Nose, 2019
Interaction is minimal – the poem pauses until the reader touches the screen – creating a rhythm where text, sound, and image progress together. KAOS, 2012
The title refers to multiple forms of diffusion: the technical process of algorithmic image generation; the physical dispersion of paint; and the informal, community-based spread of knowledge and technology. Diffused States (Boston), 2025
The installation examined how concealment can create tension between what is covered and potentially uncovered. Sucker Trick, 2017
The Pattern In Us All (2007) was a lecture performance created by Anders Bojen & Kristoffer Ørum at the University of Copenhagen. The Pattern In Us All, 2007