Kristoffer Ørum
An archive with gaps in it, kept by the person who made the gaps.
A portraitist. None of the portraits are of him.
The machines are collaborators and cannot be credited.
Twenty years out of art school, and back in it.
Made by hand, mostly. Cut, cast, sanded, painted.
A teacher who keeps a studio in order to have something to teach from.
In 2025, the project will travel to Krakow, Malmö, Boston, Vancouver, Lexington, and Aarhus. Hvidovre Makes Good Times Better, 2025
Ørum's installation used speech recognition technology integrated into sculptural objects that resembled common household items. Listening Without Ears, 2019
Putin's Nose was a multi-year project that sought to turn surveillance systems' simplified identity categories and tools against themselves. Putin's Nose, 2019
At the same time, abstract projections of colour and computer-generated sound evolve according to the same underlying logic. AutoBiography, 2011
Each email contained a unique, computer-generated text announcing fictional construction projects — ranging from the plausible to the fantastic. City Planning, 2010
The collaboration process involved both artists visiting associations for fieldwork and associations visiting the museum for workshop days that became the foundation for the exhibited artworks. Everyday Heroes, 2019
Some elements are only revealed through exploration, others remain invisible, and a hidden part of the project can be discovered by persistent visitors. Topographies of the Insignificant, 2010
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
In the video, Ørum reflects on the human body as data by visually overlaying biometric patterns, abstracted motion, and rhythmic shifts of light and texture. Data Kroppe, 2017
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
This approach shares a lineage with experimental practices such as Surrealist automatic writing and collage. Watershed, 2025
The project was part of Nordic Sessions II, focusing on artistic "walking protocols" based on senses, local places, and movement in urban space. According to the Nose, 2021
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
Yet it is also a paradox: even though AI produces many versions of me, they all point back to a recognisable “I.” This double movement—dissolution and reinforcement—is part of what interests me. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
I also do it because local AI is itself an impure position. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
The exhibition featured works from 26 artists, including paintings, sculptures, photos, and video pieces The exhibition's core concept was uniquely time-based and site-specific. Where the walls weep sugar, 2025
SignalCrayfish was presented as part of the two-person exhibition "Semio-Technical Traffics" with Emily Rosamond. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
The project extended across the museum basement, a nearby grocery store, and surrounding public lawns. Game Continent, 2010
A collective of ten artists, led by Anders Bojen and Kristoffer Ørum, documented these spaces and transformed them into an interconnected web of associations, facts, myths and misunderstandings. Topographies of the Insignificant, 2010
The video combines humor, science fiction, and speculative narratives in a single continuous run through unusual and imaginative topics. Search for Carrot ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence, 2006
The project replaced advertising posters at Sydhavn Station with what appeared to be an information campaign about the development and dissolution of the welfare state from 1872 to 2001. Frihed, Lighed Og Hip-Hop, 2023
Invisible Objects was presented at Prince Gallery, Copenhagen, from 3 June to 1 July 2016. Invisible Objects, 2016
Mundane Heroics is a collaborative project by Kristoffer Ørum and Nilas Dumstrei. Mundane Heroics, 2019
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
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
The work examined how digital recognition systems and facial detection algorithms influence perception and identity. Putins Nose, 2018
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
The installation included a manipulated deep fake video featuring politician Pernille Vermund discussing invasive species. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
The piece challenges conventional media formats by introducing poetic, disconcerting aesthetics into mainstream broadcast, encouraging reflection on surveillance, representation, and identity in the digital age. Data Kroppe, 2017
*KAOS* is an interactive iPad app created in collaboration with poet Ursula Andkjær Olsen. KAOS, 2012
Each day, the system generated a new composite face from images found via Google’s lists of top search terms. Recognised Faces, 2014
The work featured 3D-printed signal crayfish models, USB-connected gadgets, and digital manipulations. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
The project formed part of a research collaboration between the participating museums and the University of Copenhagen. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
The festival invited artists to work across the boundaries between history, urban space, and perception, creating site-specific works and lectures that engaged with the city’s social and architectural context. A Subjective History of Gdańsk, 2011
The work mixed factual information about signal crayfish with invented characteristics, including claims that the species can grow to 1.8 metres and possess wireless communication abilities. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
The system does not distinguish between what a photojournalist might frame as a central subject and what might appear incidental. Watershed, 2025
The work was installed in the lobby of the National Danish Broadcaster (DR) as part of Glowing Climate, organized by Illumenarts in 2009. The Wave, 2009
Admitting this is not, in Andrea Fraser’s spirit, a defeat, but a strategy: I would rather acknowledge my own narcissism and greed and use them as material, than pretend I stand outside. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
On the one hand, it can be seen as an attempt to resist the grip of major platforms, their data collection, and their opaque models. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
Even the City Dreams of Being Another is part of the exhibition At the Edge II, presented at Skene in Malmö. Even the City Dreams of Being Another, 2025