Kristoffer Ørum
A portraitist. None of the portraits are of him.
An archive with gaps in it, kept by the person who made the gaps.
The machines are collaborators and cannot be credited.
Works with machines that are confidently wrong.
Nothing digital about it. A screen is an object, and objects sit in rooms.
Science fiction, set last week.
The project has been discussed in Vice and elsewhere as a reflection on surveillance, aesthetics and identity in the age of algorithmic vision. Recognised Faces, 2014
It ran across two buildings in Ringsted: the artist-run Ringsted Galleriet on Bøllingsvej 15, and the blood-sampling department of Midt- og Vestsjællands Hospital on Bøllingsvej 30. Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care, 2026
The exhibition text calls them blind creatures watching over the exhibition and the people in it. Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care, 2026
The work was exhibited at Vejle Kunstmuseum from March to August 2020, then at Holstebro Kunstmuseum from September 2020 to January 2021. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
The Downloadable Augmented Reality App (available here: https://s.oerum.org/BW) allows one to build one's own messy and unregulated digital architectures, both on and off the building site around Spanien 19C. Brownfield Wonderland, 2022
While not free from environmental impact, this approach reflects an effort to minimize resource use and ecological harm in the project’s production. Hvidovre Makes Good Times Better, 2025
Signal Crayfish was presented as part of "Monstrous Machines," an exhibition on why new technologies provoke fear and how this impacts our perception of technology. Signal_Crayfish, 2021
"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
While gentrification night favour one imagined future out of all the others that could have come about, the ongoing struggle of whose imaginaries will be realised, and whose will be kept as potential or unrealistic futures, remains. Brownfield Wonderland, 2022
We are steered by algorithms that curate which images reach us. Watershed, 2025
The exhibition dealt with invisible communication systems including Wi-Fi networks, radio communications, and chemical signals that operate undetected around us. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
The project emphasizes local DIY spirit, encouraging citizens to reimagine Hvidovre’s past and future. Hvidovre Makes Good Times Better, 2025
The virtual creature could be experienced through mobile phones and tablets using augmented reality technology. The Kolding Creature, 2021
In this scenario, data does not flow through opaque corporate pipelines, but diffuses through neighbourhood workshops, shared servers, and informal archives. Diffused States (Vancouver), 2025
These objects continuously monitored conversations in the gallery space, converting spoken words into text through automated transcription systems, then physically printing the transcribed text. Listening Without Ears, 2019
The installation drew from actual environmental concerns about invasive species whilst incorporating fictional elements related to digital communication networks and surveillance technologies. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
The work featured a large, curved canvas onto which the magician's hands were projected. Sucker Trick, 2017
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
Search for Carrot ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence, 2006, is a PAL DVD video with a duration of 22 minutes, created in collaboration with Anders Bojen. Search for Carrot ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence, 2006
It is this everyday, digital infra-ordinary that Watershed makes tangible. Watershed, 2025
The work was exhibited at Vejle Kunstmuseum from March to August 2020, then travelled to Holstebro Kunstmuseum from September 2020 to January 2021. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
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
However, this an unsanctioned and unrealistic version of what could exist, made plausible but the authority of technology, not the dreams of bureaucracy. Brownfield Wonderland, 2022
A third video, A Song for Ming, was a karaoke track by Kristoffer Ærørum with music and performance by Josefine Struckmann. Djurs Øhav, 2020
Shown with Colette Fu, Diagonal Press / Tauba Auerbach, Kate Conlon, Myungah Hyon, Neta Bomani, Noam Youngrak Son, Sonnenzimmer / Nick Butcher, Nadine Nakanishi, Rujuta Rao, Stephanie Simek and THUNGRY / bex ya yolk. Signal_Crayfish, 2026
Everyday objects were recognisable yet altered. Mundane Heroics, 2019
Spray was presented as both an exhibition and performance at Friisland's Center for Performance Art during Art Matter festival. Mr. Spray, 2024
Instead of showing only what is lost when a human is translated into data, these moments offer a new perspective. Speaker 1, 2026
Using the fictional device Scope 3000, he ultimately merged with the patterns themselves. The Pattern In Us All, 2007
The work was reviewed in The Brooklyn Rail and included in a panel discussion about interspecies publications created during the pandemic. Signal_Crayfish, 2021
Over the past year, I have created a series of self-portraits using locally run AI. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
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
These objects were then animated through role play and staged as collective tableaux, blurring the line between workshop and public presentation. Mundane Heroics, 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 work was exhibited at ARoS Public's communication centre on the third floor from May to July 2021, alongside works by Danish and international artists including Lawrence Lek, Morehshin Allahyari, Stephanie Dinkins, and others. Signal_Crayfish, 2021
The exhibition was the second presentation by OXER and was supported by Statens Kunstfond. Depth Estimation, 2019
Some of the objects broadcasted content directly through custom-built wireless networks. Invisible Objects, 2016
Putin's Nose began with an everyday moment: looking into a shopping bag full of groceries and noticing a beetroot that, for a moment, looked like the artist's Russian grandmother's nose. Putin's Nose, 2019
A chair, a refrigerator door containing a bottle of milk, a platter holding a watermelon, and a breadbox with a loaf of rye bread were produced in jesmonite with inner cores of flamingo foam that were dissolved in acetone. Invisible Objects, 2016
The project aimed to examine new forms of dialogue in contemporary art on different terms than previously known. Everyday Heroes, 2019