Biography
Valdis is researching how American design theory in the 1970s conceived of complexity and crisis. Taking Herbert Simon’s capacious definition of design as a starting point – "everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones" – he is looking to understand the emergence of new practices and conceptual vocabularies for dealing with crisis. Why was design mobilized to deal with financial, technological, ecological, and political volatility? How, in the process, has our understanding of techne (making), artificiality, and sociality changed?
Prior to starting his PhD at the University of Chicago, Valdis co-ran a speculative design and futures research studio in Toronto, From Later. His non-academic work has appeared in Logic(s), Primer, Newest, Strelka Institute, MISC, MaRS, and Scenario Magazine.