Department Profile

Department of Unusual Certainties is a Toronto-based alternative research and design studio working at the interstices of urban design, planning, public art, spatial research and mapping. DoUC operate under the mandate of expanding our conception of what urban design is and what it can achieve. The Department’s work is informed by one guiding philosophy – that the city is the physical manifestation of a long sequence of unusual certainties, each one simultaneously more unusual and yet more certain than its predecessor. The Department publishes, lectures, teaches, and exhibits often. DoUC is currently the Innovator in Residence at the Design Exchange – Canada’s National Design Museum.

Christopher Pandolfi is a Toronto-based artist, cartographer, urban designer and visual journalist and co-founder of Department of Unusual Certainties. The core of Christopher’s practice deals with uncovering, exploring and then experimenting with the occurrences of everyday existence, which usually lead to the creation of new systems and new futures. Many of these experiments have been published and exhibited in a wide variety of local, national, and international venues.  Christopher also teaches on the visualization of information, both its techniques and application in society, as well as exhibition and systems design.

Simon Rabinyuk is a Toronto-based visual artist working in sculpture, video, and performance. He has presented work across Canada including as a part of the 7a*11d International Festival of Performance, the Harbourfront Centre’s Hatch Emerging Performance Series, at Ryerson University’s Modernity Unbound Symposium, and as a part of Broken City Lab’s Storefront Residency for Social Innovation.