In Hvidovre, a suburban municipality on Copenhagen's western edge, a bicycle journey through the town is transformed by Stable Diffusion AI from its everyday streets, housing blocks and infrastructure into vibrant tropical scenery, with palm trees, crystal waters and colorful flora replacing the familiar Danish suburban landscape. The video was originally part of an interactive installation where visitors could control its playback using a giant record player interface, allowing them to scratch and manipulate both the video's speed and its soundtrack, echoing hip-hop's transformation of turntables from playback devices into creative instruments. The AI generation includes characteristic imperfections like oddly-shaped trees and floating buildings as it reimagines Hvidovre's modernist architecture and urban planning in tropical forms.

"HVIDOVRE MAKES GOOD TIMES BETTER" is an exhibition at Hvidovre Main Library and is part of the project "Freedom, Equality and Hip-hop", which connects unrealised dreams of a Danish welfare state with early local DIY hip-hop. The exhibition explores how a better future could have emerged through local interpretations of global ideas, rather than through centralised planning based on international mainstream. The exhibition takes its title from 1960, when the Social Democratic Party ran for election with the slogan "Make Good Times Better". At that time, there had been economic growth and falling unemployment during the three years the Social Democrats had been in power, and the era was characterised by optimism and dreams of collectively creating a better future - something that can be difficult to find today. Through AI-generated images and counterfactual historical writing, the vision of a local self-built utopia in Hvidovre is brought to life through images, video, music and text. The exhibition samples elements from Hvidovre's rich history and distinctive architecture, combining them in new, surprising ways. Local rumours, past dreams and half-forgotten individuals are mixed with Hvidovre's documented history in an interactive video installation, posters and sound works. Just as the hip-hop DJ transformed the turntable from a playback device into a creative instrument, the exhibition transforms Hvidovre's history into a new, speculative narrative. Algorithms originally designed for advertising images are now used to dream up an alternative history, where Hvidovre's unique architectural elements and local stories are remixed into a new vision for the town. Created using various forms of artificial intelligence, all elements of the exhibition contain deliberate errors and imperfections. Too many fingers, weightless houses and other details reveal, upon closer inspection, that the narrative is a fiction that viewers can build upon themselves. This approach emphasises the exhibition's theme of local creativity and DIY spirit, where Hvidovre's citizens are invited to reimagine their town's past and future. Previous parts of "Freedom, Equality and Hip-hop" have taken place at Kongegaarden in Korsør, Sydhavn Station in Copenhagen, Friisland in Copenhagen's North Harbour, the Survival Kit Biennial in Riga, Latvia, and the artist-run platform F.eks. in Aalborg. During 2025, the project will travel to places including Krakow, Malmö, Boston, Vancouver, Lexington and Aarhus. You can follow the project's development on Instagram: @kristofferorum. Opening: 16 January 2025, 4-7 PM Exhibition period: 16 January - 28 February 2025 Opening hours Mon: 10.00 - 19.00, Tues-Fri: 10.00 - 18.00, Sat-Sun: 10.00 - 16.00 Hvidovre Hovedbibliotek, Hvidovrevej 280, 2650 Hvidovre, Danmark https://www.hvidovrebib.dk/.../udstilling-hvidovre-gor... A counterfactual project supported by: The Danish Arts Foundation, the Discretionary Fund of Hvidovre Municipality & Hvidovre Libraries Thanks to: Svend Vibe Dahlgren, Trine Friedrichsen, Majken Hansen, Dorte Bach, Henriette Laura Astrup, Rasmus Hurtig, Mathias Borello, Tania Ørum & Michael Boelt Fischer All images Have been created using the Flux.1 diffusion models from Black Forest, on a used computer powered by green electricity with certificates of origin from Nordic solar plants, wind turbines and hydroelectric facilities. None of this is, of course, a guarantee that the project doesn't harm our environment, but it should be understood as an attempt to use as few resources as possible and minimise damage while realising the project.