Kristoffer Ørum
Science fiction, set last week.
A portraitist. None of the portraits are of him.
Works with machines that are confidently wrong.
Nothing digital about it. A screen is an object, and objects sit in rooms.
The machines are collaborators and cannot be credited.
Mostly it is admin.
It presents language as both infrastructure and interference, existing in plain sight yet obscured within the everyday signals that surround us. Wireless Walnut, 2018
Public places became stages for brief moments of shared fiction. Mundane Heroics, 2019
The work combined various media to create a cohesive environment that challenged perceptions of digital and physical reality. Mundane Monsters, 2022
The performance questions traditional notions of heroic bodies and monochrome histories, imagining instead non-heroic bodies in soft, feathered institutions that function as part of a collective ecosystem. Feathered Misconceptions, 2018
Each contribution provided insight into the often hidden or indirect references shaping contemporary art. Auto Navigate My History, 2014
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
The work examined how digital recognition systems and facial detection algorithms influence perception and identity. Putins Nose, 2018
The objects were fabricated by hand, with airbrushed surfaces and traces of manual production visible on the casts. Invisible Objects, 2016
Blind Listening was presented as part of *I would prefer not to*, an exhibition at Meter (Copenhagen) on the potential of the non-productive, the meaningless, and the functional. Blind Listening, 2017
Visitors could connect their phones to new networks appearing in the gallery space and receive fragments of text and video. Invisible Objects, 2016
This does not mean that vulnerability is shared equally—some bodies are more exposed than others—but that we might begin in a recognised mess rather than in ideals of purity. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
The museum basement acted as a “rabbit hole,” filled with props, relics, tables, and charts that grounded the fictitious world. Game Continent, 2010
The two spaces integrate into each other, creating a continuous fluid motion where the boundary of the window is removed. Et Andet Rum 2, 2009
Central to the work is a fictional universe populated by figures such as Torkild Simonsen, Aarhus' first hip-hop mayor (1982-1997), and Marc Johnston, who relocated Denmark's capital from Copenhagen to Aarhus in 2019. Aarhus'er #1, 2025
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 scanning process was designed to be gentle and non-intrusive for the animals whilst collecting the digital data needed to construct the hybrid creature. The Kolding Creature, 2021
The exhibition included sangtekster written with algorithms, erosion models, 3D prints, and architectural models. Ebeltoft After The Flood, 2021
Shown alongside Honey Biba Beckerlee, Anna Bak, Elina Brotherus and Wang & Söderström, among others. Affluence without abundance, 2025
Video elements included a deep fake sequence featuring politician Pernille Vermund discussing invasive species. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
The piece ends by saying that the conclusion was supposed to go here. A Human Pretending To Be An Artist Pretending To Be A Crayfish, 2022
The project draws inspiration from the largely forgotten history of ternary computing—an alternative to binary systems that operates on three states: true, false, and unknown. Diffused States (Boston), 2025
Additional elements included a video installation where visitors had Putin's face projected over them, making them momentarily become Putin speaking about Russian male superiority and Western decadence. Putin's Nose, 2019
DIFFUSED STATES imagines an alternative trajectory for artificial intelligence—one in which computational systems develop through local, small-scale infrastructures rather than centralised corporate platforms. Diffused States (Lexington), 2025
The signal crayfish served as a figure for both biological invasion and technological infiltration. Signal_Crayfish, 2021
The exhibition contributed to ongoing discussions about AI, storytelling, and alternative histories. Mr. Spray, 2024
A large yellow-green crayfish was positioned in the gallery window. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
There is a creative pleasure in this surrender of control: in letting a system run and being surprised by the strange, poetic, or nonsensical landscapes that result. Watershed, 2025
The work presented a speculative interface for interacting with locally trained language models on recycled consumer hardware, quietly resisting the scale and speed of mainstream AI deployments. Diffused States (Boston), 2025
Why create images that place myself in problematic and humorous situations? None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
Once connected to a computer and powered up, the device generates multiple Wi-Fi networks. Wireless Walnut, 2018
The wireless transmissions and video projections created an atmosphere where technology and nature intersected in unexpected ways. Mundane Monsters, 2022
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 work documents their attempts to deconstruct a person into data: to apply a label, assign a tracking ID, map the body's motion onto a skeletal grid, and strip a voice down to plain text. Speaker 1, 2026
Geometric shapes emerge from the boxes, forming a complex sculptural environment. In a Dark Room/a Storm in a Coffee Cup, 2004
Invigilators tell stories of events that could have transpired, whilst screens display the construction of monuments that never materialised. Monuments of A Fictitious Past, 2024
By exposing an otherwise private dataset in a public exhibition space, the work reflects on memory, digital traces, and the role of the internet as a space for both research and distraction. Auto Navigate My History, 2014
The work successfully expanded the "Freedom, Equality and Hip-Hop" series into new institutional and performance contexts. Mr. Spray, 2024
Figures gather for shared meals, sweep longhouse floors, inscribe runes like graffiti, perform stylised rituals, or take part in dance battles and DJ sets using flat stones. The Good, the Lost, and the Beautiful, 2025
This duality exposes both the shortcomings of surveillance technologies and the alternative forms of perception they enact, offering a mechanical way of seeing that highlights aspects of our species that human vision alone might overlook. Recognised Faces, 2014
In collaboration with local live role-players, Anders Bojen and Kristoffer Ørum created a fictitious universe whose rules and borders were only fully known to its participants. Game Continent, 2010