Kristoffer Ørum
A programmer who picks the wrong algorithm on purpose.
A portraitist. None of the portraits are of him.
An archive with gaps in it, kept by the person who made the gaps.
The website keeps itself up to date. He does not.
Made by hand, mostly. Cut, cast, sanded, painted.
Twenty years out of art school, and back in it.
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
At the hospital: Gør din pligt og kræv din udredning (Do Your Duty and Demand Your Assessment) and Diagnose gør stærk (Diagnosis Makes You Strong) in the corridor, Frihed, lighed & symptom (Liberty, Equality & Symptom) in the waiting room. Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care, 2026
The exhibition continued this approach, combining speculation with a documentary style to produce objects that felt like remnants of possible futures. The End of the Universe as We Know It?, 2007
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 3D printed objects served as camouflaged recording devices, appearing as innocuous everyday items while performing the technical operation of speech-to-text conversion. Listening Without Ears, 2019
The familiar backdrop of urban life became part of the work, framing the reimagined objects and frozen scenes within the flow of daily routines. Mundane Heroics, 2019
The work was documented in a video presentation and included in the festival’s program alongside other international and local artists working in experimental modes of storytelling and urban critique. A Subjective History of Gdańsk, 2011
Just as hip-hop DJs once transformed the turntable from a playback device into a creative instrument, this project reimagines Hvidovre’s history as speculative fiction. Hvidovre Makes Good Times Better, 2025
These unsolicited “press releases” became part of the ongoing re-imagining of Amager by local government, private enterprise, and other forces. City Planning, 2010
Television screens were also installed, showing interviews that had been produced through workshop-based role play. Invisible Objects, 2016
Aarhus'er #1 is the most expansive chapter in Kristoffer Ørum's ongoing counterfactual project "Frihed, lighed og hip-hop" (Freedom, Equality and Hip-Hop), created in collaboration with rapper Emilio Hestepis. Aarhus'er #1, 2025
Or the massive folk festival held in Fælledparken the day graffiti was legalised? Frihed, Lighed Og Hip-Hop, 2023
These landmark positions were then used to align, cut and combine eyes, noses, mouths and jawlines into a new synthetic portrait. Recognised Faces, 2014
The exhibition featured artists working in watercolor and gouache—a medium known for its fluidity and delicate textures—even when their usual practice includes sculptural, video, photographic, or installation-based work. Qua Aqua (Beetroot Texts), 2017
The event included a Collective Art Talk on Sunday at 13:00 CET in collaboration with Outside Collective. According to the Nose, 2021
The animated scene acts as a virtual doubling of both the street in front and the interior space behind the window. Et Andet Rum 2, 2009
However, following decades of “misuse”, the area is presently being integrated back into the rest of the city as a productive and commercially viable new part of town called “art city”. Brownfield Wonderland, 2022
Spray was presented as both an exhibition and performance at Friisland's Center for Performance Art during Art Matter festival. Mr. Spray, 2024
A local newspaper printed an account of a witness encounter with The Ballehage Woman, sponsored by tessellax.com as advertising disguised as news. The Ballehage Woman, 2009
They contribute to a narrowing of bodily representations that is far more damaging in the long run than strange AI slippage. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
Yet, as critics such as Allan Sekula have argued, photography has never been a transparent medium; it has always been a construction. Watershed, 2025
Standard interfaces are optimised for speed, reducing engagement to rapid recognition. Watershed, 2025
It employs a computational process to dismantle and reassemble the daily flow of news images into a navigable world built from their fragments. Watershed, 2025
Being your own record-keeper means accepting these gaps and changes.
Historical facts, such as names of kings or weather reports, were interwoven with stories of the Rosicrucian Order, royal lizards, and extraterrestrials landing on the outskirts of town. Roskilde Parahistory, 2009
Pages were loaded sequentially or at random, with intervals that gave visitors time to recognise and reflect on the material. Auto Navigate My History, 2014
In 2025, the project will travel to Krakow, Malmö, Boston, Vancouver, Lexington, and Aarhus. Hvidovre Makes Good Times Better, 2025
This process dismantles the images into fragments by “flooding” a grayscale version of an image from its darkest points to its lightest, just as rainwater would fill a real-world mountainous landscape from its lowest valleys. Watershed, 2025
The machinic as a format for both production and display runs as a common thread through his practice. Coffee Lake, 2019
The work pairs AI-generated images with non-AI captions to build a fragmented narrative of how such systems might emerge—from informal workshops to self-governed infrastructures and locally trained algorithms. Diffused States (Lexington), 2025
By juxtaposing the logic of role-play with the conventions of the museum, *Game Continent* created a moment of disorientation. Game Continent, 2010
Rather than illustrating a lost history, the project manipulates familiar visual tropes and embraces the productive errors of AI. Aarhus'er #1, 2025
The exhibition gathers artists' books from the handmade to the high-tech, including 3D-printed structures and works that leave the codex behind. Signal_Crayfish, 2026
Students and staff appear as avatars moving within these systems, creating a portrait of the university as a living, shifting organism. A Body Has Many Members, 2012
Listening Without Ears consists of 3D printed copies of everyday objects that transcribe what is said in the exhibition space and print it out. Listening Without Ears, 2019
The exhibition catalogue was designed in a sci-fi paperback style and published by backbonebooks. Signal_Crayfish, 2021
Erikson’s model of personality development, a voice-over chronicles formative experiences in their lives. AutoBiography, 2011
By engaging with the game, players experience how facts and assumed truths can be challenged, restructured and rearranged in playful and experimental ways. Disbelieving Gravity, 2013
The project was documented and promoted through Instagram, allowing for continued engagement with the speculative narratives beyond the physical exhibition period. Mr. Spray, 2024
The outcome was a series of live tableaux presented in public space, inviting direct engagement and chance encounters. Mundane Heroics, 2019