Tomo Kihara is a Japanese interaction designer creating playful interventions for social change.

Based in Amsterdam, his work focuses at the intersection of art, technology, games and the urban space.

His projects have been acclaimed internationally, being exhibited at Designs of the Year 2016 by the London Design Museum (phonvert) and winning the Grand Prix at WIRED Creative Hack Award (Street Debater). He has been giving talks at international conferences like Design INDABA and European Design Festival.

Tomo holds an MSc Design for Interaction from Delft University of Technology (NL) and BA in Environment and Information Studies from Keio University (JP). Having backgrounds in both design research and HCI (Human Computer Interaction) allows him to deploy research-driven designs that requires technical skills. He wears many hats as an artist, coder and researcher but one thing remains the same — his works only starts by its use.

In his practice, he finds points of intervention in complex socio-technical problems by conducting extensive research. He then designs playful interventions that gives a new perspective on these issues which takes the form of a product, a game or even a new job.