hi! 👋 My name is

Philo van Kemenade

I create tools, stories and things in between to amplify human connection with arts and culture.

I enjoy working with multidisciplinary teams to create engaging experiences that put people in touch with the world around them, using digital collections, storytelling, AI and interaction design.

From my background in Cognitive Science & Artificial Intelligence I have a particular interest in theories of mind that understand consciousness as something Embodied, Enactive, Extended and Embedded.

What I am doing /now.

Currently

I work at the design agency CLEVER°FRANKE as a senior front-end developer. In enjoy working on design systems, building interfaces for data driven and AI-powered tools and bridging between technical and client facing perspectives.

I run Storytellers United, a welcoming community of innovative storytellers, spread across many disciplines and time zones. We organise an international series of storytelling hack jams to bring together media makers, web developers and designers to prototype stories that can only be told on the web.
You should join us on Slack.

Previously

Between 2019 and 2023 I worked at the Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision on innovative user interfaces for audiovisual collections. In the scope of the MediaScape project, I investigated the efficacy of ‘generous interfaces’ in the AV archiving field. The project combined interaction design with data visualisation to develop a series of interface concepts that reveal the scale and complexity of AV collections.

I developed a skill sharing tool, called Gradual, which helps communities to match members based on their interests & talents.

I co-founded the design studio Unfold Collective to explore the potential for sense making on the intersection of digital and physical media. We helped cultural organisations and brands to tell stories in experiential ways.

I co-founded Sensorium Festival, celebrating humane applications of creative technology in art, design and performance.

Between 2016 and 2019 I worked at the R&D team of the Slovak National Gallery on web technology to connect people to art. Projects that I'm particularly proud of include the online collections platform Web umenia, a long-form story about a controversial part of Slovak history and a conversational interface that brings two iconic Czechoslovak painters back to life in chat bot form. You can find all our work on GitHub.