about Victoria |
the method to the madness
Victoria works for the Los Angeles Philharmonic in development.
LONG BIO
At the age of 17, Victoria won a poster design competition to intern at Wieden + Kennedy. The following year she was elected to be the 2010 Rose Festival Queen and ambassador to the City of Portland where her interest shifted from graphic design to better understanding civic engagement in cities. During her undergraduate at Portland State University, she worked at First Stop Portland in the Department of Research and Strategic Partnerships. Victoria helped create, design, and facilitate programing for global leaders from around the world who were interested in visiting Portland and learning its best practices in city planning, place-making, sustainability and getting residents more civically active. Victoria acted as a liaison on behalf of the city and metropolitan region, introducing other mayors, city planners, engineers, and architects to Portland's expert innovators directly responsible for developing and implementing city initiatives. In 2012 Victoria was appointed by Portland City Council to be part of the Arts Tax Citizen Oversight Committee and was brought on for several neighborhood community projects such as the Portland Festival Symphony free summer park concert series, helping re-brand and plan community events and programs for The Halprin Landscape Conservancy, and plan events for the band, Pink Martini. Through working for Thomas Lauderdale the band leader of Pink Martini, Victoria was introduced to Paige Powell and joined her team by archiving never seen before images of Andy Warhol, Jean Michel-Bascqait and New York City in the 1970s and 80s which debuted at the Portland Art Museum, titled "The Ride" and was covered by The New York Times. Inspired by the project.
research background and INSPIRATION
As a communication researcher with an urban planning background, Victoria studies how information and messages are transmitted and interpreted in both the analog and digital realm, and how those messages create culture. Her main area of research explores the intersection between urbanism, technology and mass media (journalism) regarding how information and symbolic cues communicate shared values and cultural norms and influence civic engagement.
Victoria is the first member of her family born in the United States, and the daughter of political refugees who escaped communist Romania after being inspired by the primetime drama, "Dallas". Early on Victoria was hyperaware of her surroundings and observant of human behavior as a way to better adapt but also used observation as survival tool. Most of her childhood involved exploring the city by foot which led to her fascination of how place is created and designed based upon shared values, assumptions and processes. Victoria's interest in how place is created and experienced has led her into ethnographic research to better understand how to better onboard people and reduce uncertainty/anxiety in new experiences whether they be in the workplace, public spaces or new communication technologies.
Currently Victoria is working on a media project called "The City is The Message".