Kristoffer Ørum
Some of it only exists as a photograph now.
A portraitist. None of the portraits are of him.
A documentary practice. Every work here has an address and a date.
Works with animals that have not agreed to it.
Mostly it is admin.
Solitary. One person decides what is documented and what is forgotten.
Brownfield Wonderland is a multi-platform art project at Spanien 19C in Aarhus, Denmark. Brownfield Wonderland, 2022
Across media, the fictional creatures were presented with a mixture of pop cultural humour and the kind of scientific authority familiar from public information campaigns. Mundane Monsters, 2023
By constructing new faces from parts of the most widely circulated images online, Recognised Faces created a snapshot of the constant data collection and algorithmic recognition happening daily on the internet. Recognised Faces, 2014
Like Haraway, I believe the only honest critique must come from a situated place—knowledge that is always embodied, compromised, and grounded in specific contexts. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
These events never happened; the project sets out what might have been possible. Frihed, Lighed Og Hip-Hop, 2023
The installation features ephemeral, non-heroic structures that encourage scrutiny of conventional heroic narratives. Monuments of A Fictitious Past, 2024
The exhibition featured wall art contributions by artist Anders Reventlov alongside AI-generated narratives. Mr. Spray, 2024
Kristoffer Ørum’s contribution imagines Malmö as shaped by the afterlives of its industrial past and alternative forms of civic imagination. Even the City Dreams of Being Another, 2025
The second ten minutes show a baby sleeping, curled peacefully against a blue woodlouse. Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care, 2026
The exhibition invited seven artists to examine the expressive and poetic qualities of computer programming, looking at how code affects us beyond the interfaces of software applications. Listening Without Ears, 2019
It was accompanied by scholarly publication and received coverage in Danish art press. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
We are shaped by the grammar of the frame, where composition and colour psychology direct our gaze and mood. Watershed, 2025
The objects were fabricated by hand, with airbrushed surfaces and traces of manual production visible on the casts. Invisible Objects, 2016
Using computer vision software, a rapping face appears on the plum, following its movements as the lecturer holds it in front of the webcam. Feathered Misconceptions, 2018
The event included a Collective Art Talk on Sunday at 13:00 CET in collaboration with Outside Collective. According to the Nose, 2021
The title refers to multiple senses of “diffusion”: the technical process of image generation; the social circulation of tools and knowledge; and the physical dispersal of small-scale devices across different environments. Diffused States (Vancouver), 2025
A third video, A Song for Ming, was a karaoke track by Kristoffer Ærørum with music and performance by Josefine Struckmann. Djurs Øhav, 2020
The postcards extend this blending of eras, presenting scenes where identity, memory, and cultural imagination converge and transform. The Good, the Lost, and the Beautiful, 2025
The work combined various media to create a cohesive environment that challenged perceptions of digital and physical reality. Mundane Monsters, 2022
One text reads: “In the bottom drawer of my fridge are a few beetroots that have been left there for so long that they have begun to leak red liquid. Qua Aqua (Beetroot Texts), 2017
The piece was first aired on November 7, 2017, as part of a series on innovative expressions in public media. Data Kroppe, 2017
Ørum's installation used speech recognition technology integrated into sculptural objects that resembled common household items. Listening Without Ears, 2019
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 project draws on the history of low-resource and locally maintained computing, from community-run bulletin board systems to peer-to-peer networks sustained by recycled hardware. Diffused States (Vancouver), 2025
Through this lens, the familiar streets and landmarks of Gdańsk are reimagined, highlighting the city’s layered histories, political influences, and the subjective experience of its inhabitants. A Subjective History of Gdańsk, 2011
Amorphous forms in PU foam were combined with media players hidden inside. Invisible Objects, 2016
Retired factory workers repurpose their technical knowledge to build speakers and maintain audio infrastructure, passing skills across generations. Even the City Dreams of Being Another, 2025
I am tired of artists who speak as if they know what is best for others, instead of investigating what is wrong with themselves. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
Until redevelopment started a few years ago, the area had somehow managed to escaped both commercial and municipal interest. Brownfield Wonderland, 2022
To experience this material, users navigate a digital environment rather than scroll through a linear feed. Watershed, 2025
As the lecture unfolded, the lecturer (actor Kristian Husted) gradually transformed from a detached academic into a man consumed by his subject. The Pattern In Us All, 2007
The work renders the fragile and transient qualities of soap in digital animation, turning an everyday material into a dynamic, projected environment. Soap Particles, 2005
It was coded using the then-ubiquitous Flash interactive format. Topographies of the Insignificant, 2010
The work examined how digital recognition systems and facial detection algorithms influence perception and identity. Putins Nose, 2018
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
The images are unstable and shifting, conjuring a welfare system built on an uneasy combination of nature and technology that is neither utopian nor dystopian but simply strange and somehow plausible. Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care, 2026
Fed back into the internet, these phantom portraits acted as a small disturbance within systems of profiling maintained by intelligence agencies, corporations and other data collectors. Recognised Faces, 2014
Geometric shapes emerge from the boxes, forming a complex sculptural environment. In a Dark Room/a Storm in a Coffee Cup, 2004
We are guided by digital defaults, where smartphone cameras enhance, correct, or beautify before we even see the result. Watershed, 2025
Deconstructed 2D news images drift across a constructed 3D landscape, never pretending to be windows onto reality. Watershed, 2025