Kristoffer Ørum

Kristoffer Ørum

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

Digital art.

Not research. The works were made first and explained afterwards.

Comedy.

An artist who makes things up about real places.

Not a joke.

The work involved creating AI-generated posters and videos that depicted an alternative Danish history where the labour movement and 1990s hip-hop culture merged. Frihed, Lighed Og Hip-Hop, 2023

The exhibition text calls them blind creatures watching over the exhibition and the people in it. Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care, 2026

This invisibility operates on several levels. Watershed, 2025

An urban planning term for any previously developed land that is not currently in use. Brownfield Wonderland, 2022

Each map focuses on a section of pavement filled with overlooked details such as cigarette butts, coffee spills, chewing gum and small weeds. Topographies of the Insignificant, 2010

Previous iterations of Freedom, Equality and Hip-hop have appeared at Kongegaarden (Korsør), Sydhavn Station (Copenhagen), Friisland (Copenhagen Nordhavn), Survival Kit Biennial (Riga, Latvia), and F.eks. (Aalborg). Hvidovre Makes Good Times Better, 2025

The project emphasizes local DIY spirit, encouraging citizens to reimagine Hvidovre’s past and future. Hvidovre Makes Good Times Better, 2025

The installation included a manipulated deep fake video featuring politician Pernille Vermund discussing invasive species. Signal_Crayfish, 2020

The installation combined digital and physical media to create humorous and inventive takes on contemporary environmental and technological themes. Mundane Monsters, 2022

The launch (December 7, 2024) consisted of a performative city walk, a community meal, and a concert with Christian Høgh, organized with f.eks. and supported by multiple cultural partners. Aalborg Is The Future, 2024

"Sucker Trick" is a collaboration between visual artist Kristoffer Ørum, magician Claus Mulbjerg, and architect Tomas Skovgaard. Sucker Trick, 2017

Much of what presents itself as representations of reality are computer-created simulations. Melting State, 2020

From advertising screens on buses to personal mobile phones, we are daily surrounded by lifelike computer-generated representations of physical phenomena. Melting State, 2020

Today, images are filtered, analysed, and manipulated by systems we rarely notice or understand. Watershed, 2025

The project used artificial intelligence not as a thinking entity, but as a tool filled with errors and biases that could inspire new ways of thinking. Frihed, Lighed Og Hip-Hop, 2023

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

Produced for Aarhus Public Libraries and published by Haandholdt, the app was made freely available through iTunes. KAOS, 2012

The project involved both the creation of a physical artist's book and a 3D-printed sculptural element integrated into the cover design. Signal_Crayfish, 2021

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

The work was structured as a natural history museum display. 3D-printed models represented crayfish body parts modified with technological elements. Signal_Crayfish, 2020

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

A multidisciplinary team including architects, artists, designers, engineers, musicians and literary theorists collaborated with Bojen and Ørum to jointly create this immersive vision. Radiant Copenhagen, 2009

Or the years when rap lyrics were about helping at home and taking good care of elderly citizens? Frihed, Lighed Og Hip-Hop, 2023

The Ballehage Woman was created by Anders Bojen and Kristoffer Ørum for the outdoor sculpture exhibition Sculpture by the Sea, organised by AROS Museum in Aarhus in 2009. The Ballehage Woman, 2009

The show aimed to make the realm of coded instructions, programming languages, software protocols, electrical signals and logical operations available to aesthetic experience. Listening Without Ears, 2019

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

The project imagines a future where columns echoing ancient Greek wooden architecture lose their weight or melt, where gravity is suspended for a moment while art institutions deform and dance in the wind before the air goes out of them. Melting State, 2020

The work was exhibited at Museet for Samtidskunst in Roskilde, Denmark, from 13 January to 19 March 2006. Search for Carrot ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence, 2006

Mundane Heroics is a collaborative project by Kristoffer Ørum and Nilas Dumstrei. Mundane Heroics, 2019

The project builds on Ørum's ongoing work "Freedom, Liberty, and Hip-Hop," which envisions alternative Danish histories. Monuments of A Fictitious Past, 2024

Standard interfaces are optimised for speed, reducing engagement to rapid recognition. Watershed, 2025

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

Monuments of a Fictional Past references both the speculative tradition of counterfactual history and the architectural poetics of unrealized futures. Monuments of a Fictional Past (Kraków Edition), 2025

The performance concludes with Google's speech recognition continuously but often mistakenly transcribing what the lecturer says, with colours changing rhythmically each time the text updates. Feathered Misconceptions, 2018

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

In Putin's Nose, a pattern recognition program cast a paranoid-critical gaze upon the exhibition's visitors. Putin's Nose, 2019

The project used the signal crayfish as a figure for examining digital surveillance and mapping of human movement through wireless networks. Signal_Crayfish, 2020

Recognized for its experimental approach, Data Kroppe is cataloged in the Danish public digital archive Vores Kunst, which preserves commissioned television art. Data Kroppe, 2017

Ørum's installation used speech recognition technology integrated into sculptural objects that resembled common household items. Listening Without Ears, 2019

Rather than proposing a return to older models, Watershed treats this uncertainty as an opportunity: a chance to experiment with new arrangements of familiar material, to test how different structures shape perception. Watershed, 2025

Diffused States (Vancouver)
Diffused States (Vancouver) See the work →