Kristoffer Ørum
A programmer who picks the wrong algorithm on purpose.
Local. Copenhagen and Aarhus, mostly.
Twenty years out of art school, and back in it.
Research. Somebody is going to have to examine it.
A documentary practice. Every work here has an address and a date.
An artist who makes things up about real places.
The project was based on historical facts and scientific data. Djurs Øhav, 2020
The sculptures were inspired by the role-players' own objects and toolkit, translating elements from their gaming practice into interactive art objects. Everyday Heroes, 2019
How might civic memory be shaped not by permanence and power, but by shared breath, transient gatherings, and structures built to dissolve? Monuments of a Fictional Past (Kraków Edition), 2025
The title reflects several forms of diffusion: the algorithmic process of generating images; the grassroots spread of ideas and tools; and the physical scattering of devices across different environments. Diffused States (Lexington), 2025
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
Ørum's contribution used algorithmic depth estimation to analyse one of the recovered photographs and generate a three-dimensional interpretation. Depth Estimation, 2019
The installation was designed as an interactive multimedia experience that required visitors to engage with cutting-edge technology within a gallery setting. Mundane Monsters, 2022
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
In this scenario, data does not flow through opaque corporate pipelines, but diffuses through neighbourhood workshops, shared servers, and informal archives. Diffused States (Vancouver), 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
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
Or the years when rap lyrics were about helping at home and taking good care of elderly citizens? Frihed, Lighed Og Hip-Hop, 2023
The project was documented and promoted through Instagram, allowing for continued engagement with the speculative narratives beyond the physical exhibition period. Mr. Spray, 2024
Much of what presents itself as representations of reality are computer-created simulations. Melting State, 2020
The Kolding Creature was a virtual three-dimensional creature created from 3D scans of local Kolding pets and conversations with their owners. The Kolding Creature, 2021
Rather than scaling towards planetary computation, this speculative trajectory follows a slower, more situated evolution—one in which algorithms adapt to the languages, histories, and needs of their immediate context. Diffused States (Vancouver), 2025
The project's visual materials referenced aesthetics from Djurs Sommerland and airplane safety folders. Djurs Øhav, 2020
The result is a fleeting, fractured archive of the collective present—an algorithmic shadow of daily events. https://oerum.org/watershed/ Watershed, 2025
The project aimed to examine new forms of dialogue in contemporary art on different terms than previously known. Everyday Heroes, 2019
It presented a dystopian scenario where computer-generated body fragments and singing microwave ovens suggested a post-human future. The End of the Universe as We Know It?, 2007
It combines Live Action Role Playing (LARP), performance art, and sculpture, developed in close collaboration with young participants from across the Nordic region. Mundane Heroics, 2019
An urban planning term for any previously developed land that is not currently in use. Brownfield Wonderland, 2022
The project arises from a media environment where trust in both institutions and images is unsettled. Watershed, 2025
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
The book is ring-bound and its plates are 3D-printed. Signal_Crayfish, 2026
The project also responds critically to the historical metaphors of the human body as a model for political and social order. A Body Has Many Members, 2012
The resulting images visualise how computers perceive individuals not as whole people but as patterns within datasets. Recognised Faces, 2014
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 resulting text alternated between objective and scientific passages and poetic or raving narratives. Roskilde Parahistory, 2009
The exhibition was supported by Novo Nordisk Fonden. Affluence without abundance, 2025
The project continued to develop as a multi-year work, with subsequent presentations including "Mr. Frihed, Lighed Og Hip-Hop, 2023
"It Sings for Us of What We Might Become" is a specially commissioned performative lecture presented as part of the symposium "ScreenShots: Desire and Automated Image" at Kunsthal Aarhus. It Sings for Us of What We Might Become, 2019
Putin's Nose worked at the boundary between object and image, examining how digital images not only register meaning but enter physical space to shape identity and power relations. Putins Nose, 2018
The project contributed to the establishment of the Interspecies Library, the first archive dedicated to artists' books focused on more-than-human worlds. Signal_Crayfish, 2021
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 symposium featured artists and scholars examining contemporary forms of image making and computational apparatus, investigating relations between desire and automation, uncertainty and labour, self and other. It Sings for Us of What We Might Become, 2019
Recognised Faces unfolded publicly on a dedicated Tumblr, where the daily composites accumulated into a year-long portrait of both an individual and the internet’s visual culture at large. Recognised Faces, 2014
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
It weaves together factual history, fiction, and AI-generated imagery to imagine a meeting between hip-hop’s pursuit of individual freedom and the labor movement’s collective struggle for better conditions. Aalborg Is The Future, 2024
The project questions the assumption that it is "easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of the welfare state" (paraphrasing Slavoj Žižek). Melting State, 2020