Kristoffer Ørum

Kristoffer Ørum

A PhD student. Human-AI Collaboration, Copenhagen University, until 2028.

Not local. Boston, Vancouver, Riga, Kraków, Oberhausen, San Francisco.

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

Works with machines that are confidently wrong.

Nothing digital about it. A screen is an object, and objects sit in rooms.

An archive with gaps in it, kept by the person who made the gaps.

The resulting work consists of around 600 interlinked texts, images and videos. Topographies of the Insignificant, 2010

Especially simulations of destruction are so widespread and credible that one quickly forgets what the original physical phenomena looked like. Melting State, 2020

Mundane Monsters was an interactive digital multimedia exhibition that transformed the gallery at Epsilon Spires into a walk-through experience about the modern relationship between nature and culture. Mundane Monsters, 2022

The project includes works such as Detergent (Real Imaginary System) and Auto Navigate My History, which visualize, manipulate, and creatively reimagine the information generated by ordinary activities. Day to Day Data, 2008

In Aalborg, at Nordkraft the project was hosted in a former power plant turned cultural venue. Mundane Heroics, 2019

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

As Judith Butler has pointed out, an acknowledgement of our interdependence can be a basis for political communities, while Sara Ahmed highlights the possibility of an “affective solidarity” built on honesty rather than claims of innocence. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025

A protestor’s sign, a celebrity’s face, a patch of sky, or a piece of rubble—all are treated as equivalent grayscale image data to be segmented and archived. Watershed, 2025

The second ten minutes show a baby sleeping, curled peacefully against a blue woodlouse. Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care, 2026

The work contrasts the artificially generated with the seemingly authentic. Monuments of A Fictitious Past, 2024

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

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

The installation was produced specifically for Interdimensionale II at Gammelgaard (September 2020) using three 4K video players (Raspberry Pi 4), three IIYAMA B2888UHSU screens, and video rendering services from foxrenderfarm.com. Melting State, 2020

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

Bænkebider flok (Woodlouse Flock) on the floor. Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care, 2026

The project was presented as part of the Alternativa 2011–2012 festival, a contemporary art festival in Gdańsk that focused on experimental and interdisciplinary approaches to art and culture. A Subjective History of Gdańsk, 2011

The exhibition posed a paradox about how we can become accustomed to living in a constantly changing world with technological trends that supplement, expand and reinforce reality with extra layers of information. Mundane Monsters, 2023

What emerges is a narrative of the self that is both enacted and undermined by an indifferent system — an algorithmic account of personality, filtered through the lenses of psychology, technology and cultural expectation. AutoBiography, 2011

Her head was made of cardboard squares, and as she walked she produced sad and disturbing sounds audible to late-night strollers and joggers. The Ballehage Woman, 2009

None are permanent, but all leave residues—sonic, material, or narrative. Monuments of a Fictional Past (Kraków Edition), 2025

The faces produced through this process often appear distorted or uncanny to human eyes, yet they retain a resemblance to mainstream ideals of beauty. Recognised Faces, 2014

Ørum's contribution used algorithmic depth estimation to analyse one of the recovered photographs and generate a three-dimensional interpretation. Depth Estimation, 2019

It is in this indeterminate time and space the Brownfield Wonderland exists as it attempts to reimagine the post-industrial brownfield. Brownfield Wonderland, 2022

I believe that vulnerability and the recognition of one’s own inadequacy can create stronger communities than ideals of moral purity. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025

Nyt Lys is lit at dusk and switched off at eight. Affluence without abundance, 2025

Installation shots show works distributed throughout ship interior. Ebeltoft After The Flood, 2021

The work set daily life against hypothetical digital physiognomies, using the nose as a means to examine identity and perception. According to the Nose, 2021

Set in three symbolic locations—Folkets Park, Drottninggatan 6, and a speculative Malmö City Hall—the work blends archival research with fiction to propose a reparative reading of urban space. Even the City Dreams of Being Another, 2025

Documentation: - Liveart.dk project page - Nilas Dumstrei – Mundane Heroics - Liveart.dk overview - Kristoffer Ørum – Liveart.dk profile - ANTI Festival background - Facebook event archive - Video documentation on YouTube Mundane Heroics, 2019

Local rumours, past dreams, and forgotten figures merge with the town’s documented history across media: an interactive video installation, posters, sound works, and music. Hvidovre Makes Good Times Better, 2025

It is this everyday, digital infra-ordinary that Watershed makes tangible. Watershed, 2025

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

With modified lawnmowers, they cut public lawns and compressed the grass to extract chlorophyll, the “magic potion” that enabled them to carry out new missions. Game Continent, 2010

Deconstructed 2D news images drift across a constructed 3D landscape, never pretending to be windows onto reality. Watershed, 2025

At the moment the building site is a site of overlapping and contested imaginaries and Brownfield Wonderland is a celebration of this brief moment where two ideas of what a city is coexist. Brownfield Wonderland, 2022

The Wave made by Anders Bojen & Kristoffer Ørum is a computer-animated video installation depicting a stormy sea with the tower of Copenhagen City Hall in the background. The Wave, 2009

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 work was part of the group exhibition "Perpetual Interpreter" at Lokale in Copenhagen, co-curated with Anders Visti. Listening Without Ears, 2019

This video asks a question that sits at the heart of our digital lives: how do we appear to a machine? Speaker 1, 2026

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

Mundane Heroics
Mundane Heroics See the work →