Kristoffer Ørum
Local. Copenhagen and Aarhus, mostly.
An artist who makes things up about real places.
A sculptor. Jesmonite, foam, clay, 3D-printed plastic.
Research. Somebody is going to have to examine it.
Not a joke.
Most of it was built on other people's work.
The second ten minutes show a baby sleeping, curled peacefully against a blue woodlouse. Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care, 2026
A large yellow-green crayfish was positioned in the gallery window. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
The work has been presented in lectures at universities, on AI, welfare mythologies and hope through the creative misuse of digital infrastructure. Frihed, Lighed Og Hip-Hop, 2023
AALBORG ER FREMTIDEN (Aalborg Is the Future) is a public art project by Kristoffer Ørum that presents an alternative perspective on Aalborg's history. Aalborg Is The Future, 2024
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
Hverdagens Helte (Everyday Heroes) consists of a series of interactive sculptures created in collaboration with Vitar Horsens Rollespilslaug (role-playing association). Everyday Heroes, 2019
Two folders, with texts by medical historian Adam Bencard and by Kristoffer Ørum, printed inkjet and held in 3D-printed R-PETG holders in both buildings. 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
Enigmatic posters appear in public spaces where these structures were never erected, and a website hosts an archive with weekly updates on images and stories. Monuments of A Fictitious Past, 2024
Using AI, familiar sites are transformed into speculative visions, such as Karolinelunden as a DIY amusement park or Aalborg Shipyard taken over by its workers. Aalborg Is The Future, 2024
Signal_Crayfish was exhibited at Center for Book Arts from April to June 2021 as part of "Interspecies Futures ," curated by Oscar Salguero. Signal_Crayfish, 2021
Visitors encountered these figures both inside the museum and in everyday spaces, such as the local supermarket, where baguettes from the freezer section served as swords. Game Continent, 2010
The work was documented through performance protocols and connected to broader research into facial recognition, identity, and technological surveillance through embodied experience in public space. According to the Nose, 2021
Affluence without abundance (2021) shown in Nyt Lys, a group exhibition at Sophienholm in Kongens Lyngby, 19 November 2025 to 25 January 2026. Affluence without abundance, 2025
The exhibition at Kunsthal for Maritim Æstetik included a large 3D-printed map depicting Djursland as a flooded archipelago and smaller objects like a 3D-printed oyster with eyes. Djurs Øhav, 2020
The installation was part of Overgaden's REVISIT format, responding to the exhibition "EROTIK" which took place at Overgaden in 1989. Sucker Trick, 2017
I do it because I see a critique of the world that too often points outward, as if one could speak from a neutral and elevated place. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
The work was part of "Radius Kolding," an artistic research project inspired by Dutch practices of sending artists into a specific radius to investigate local activities and create new artworks. The Kolding Creature, 2021
One is pink and perforated, carrying a crown and, in mirror writing, "Find them, eat them & enjoy them" — the Danish Nature Agency's advice on the invasive signal crayfish. Signal_Crayfish, 2026
The project exploited technological imperfections to imagine an improved future by manipulating AI's original commercial intent. Frihed, Lighed Og Hip-Hop, 2023
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
By exposing an otherwise private dataset in a public exhibition space, the work reflects on memory, digital traces, and the role of the internet as a space for both research and distraction. Auto Navigate My History, 2014
The work was structured as a natural history museum display. 3D-printed models represented crayfish body parts modified with technological elements. 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
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
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
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
Installation shots show works distributed throughout ship interior. Ebeltoft After The Flood, 2021
Instead of being representations in a conventional sense, they functioned as productions of effects, transforming the exhibition space into an operational field based on concepts such as energy, velocity, and transformation. Coffee Lake, 2019
The invasive biological species served as an analogy for invasive digital technologies and data collection systems. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
The project treats these everyday activities as data sources capable of producing narratives, insights, and imaginative associations. Day to Day Data, 2008
But there is now a third gaze, one that works through calculation. Speaker 1, 2026
Signal_Crayfish takes the invasive signal crayfish, which displaces native Danish freshwater species and communicates chemically across distance, and sets it beside human communication technology. Would You Like to Know More, 2017
Participants borrowed nose-shaped masks equipped with audio guides from Lokale, taking them on walks through the Nørrebro area around Griffenfeldsgade 27. According to the Nose, 2021
The exhibition blurs the line between documentary and fiction, making room for the unrealised potential of the past to resurface not as nostalgia, but as unfinished possibility. Aarhus'er #1, 2025
Exhibition documented by photographer Mikkel Kaldal. Ebeltoft After The Flood, 2021
Rather than proposing a return to older models, Watershed treats this uncertainty as an opportunity: a chance to experiment with new arrangements of familiar material, to test how different structures shape perception. Watershed, 2025
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 publication set out the species' survival capabilities and cross-distance chemical communication systems, positioning the crayfish as superior to human technological networks in this comparison. Signal_Crayfish, 2021
The End of the Universe as We Know It? was a solo exhibition by Anders Bojen & Kristoffer Ørum at Galerie Mikael Andersen in Copenhagen in 2007. The End of the Universe as We Know It?, 2007