CV André Clements

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Profile

Systems architect and creative technologist with 30 years across software engineering, visual arts, and facilitation. I design systems that are auditable, consent-aware, and values-centered — bridging technical architecture with the processes people actually use.

Core practice: building coherent structures across domains that don’t usually talk to each other — code and art, technology and ethics, automation, philosophy and ‘common’ human judgment.

What I Do

Systems Architecture & Integration
Design and maintain multi-system platforms with long uptimes. Specialise in API integration, permission-based access control, idempotent sync patterns, and documentation-as-specification.

Human-AI Collaboration
Develop structured methodologies for working with AI tools — including provenance tracking, validation protocols, and consent-based workflows with accountable authority. Have built formal methodology for Computational Intelligence (CI) collaboration (see METHODOLOGY_CI).

Consent-Informed Design
Apply consent architecture across technical and human systems: permission regimes, boundary protocols, graceful exits, and dignity-preserving interfaces. This capability spans code (API permissions, access control) and facilitation (workshop protocols, community guidelines).

Creative Technology
Bridge visual/experiential design with engineering. Build tools for artists and creative workflows. Treat aesthetics as a design constraint, not an afterthought.

Facilitation & Experience Design
Design and run consent-based workshops, community spaces, and learning experiences. Trained in Clean Language facilitation and systems-informed group dynamics.

Selected Experience

Lead Developer & Systems Architect

One Thread Advertising | 2013–Present

  • Designed and maintained multi-tenant web platforms for domain and hosting management
  • Built Artithmetic.com: production pipeline enabling comic artists to generate print-ready PDFs with automated imposition and fulfilment integration (8+ years continuous uptime)
  • Developed and maintained Canon SA e-training academy system (PHP, 8 years); led architecture migration to WordPress with preserved business logic
  • End-to-end technical ownership: requirements, architecture, implementation, deployment, maintenance
  • Introduced structured documentation practices and system observability

Technology Manager & Deputy Marketing Manager

Regenesys Business School | 2008–2011

  • Led technology team and digital infrastructure for distance learning MBA programme
  • Designed and built custom learner management platform handling registration, content delivery, and assessment tracking
  • Drove digital marketing strategy across multiple channels

Web Media & Integration Lead

ForgeBusiness | 2006–2008

  • Optimised results-based marketing systems across global client portfolio
  • Led CMS customisation, SEO implementation, and cross-platform integration
  • Managed tracking and attribution systems for performance marketing

Online Gaming Developer

Trafficonomy | 2006

  • Developed Adobe Flash console games integrated with white-label gaming portals
  • Built affiliate marketing systems with transaction tracking
  • Created real-time chat system with moderation and filtering

Lecturer & Facilitator: Media Design Technology

Allenby Campus / Damelin / Vega | 2001–2006

  • Designed and delivered curriculum for digital media and web technology
  • Mentored students toward independent practice and critical thinking
  • Developed assessment frameworks emphasising practical application

Owner & Principal Consultant

pixelPLEXUS | 1999–2007

  • Ran independent consultancy for 8 years alongside other roles
  • Strategic communication design: needs analysis, research, conceptualisation, execution
  • Projects ranged from interactive publications to organisational surveys and training development

Graphic Designer

Computer Aided Presentation Services | 1996–2001

  • Early-career foundation in digital design during desktop publishing emergence
  • Print production, layout, presentations, and client-facing design work

Programming Instructor

SA Office Automation / Workgroup Institute | 1990s

  • Taught first programming course at age 16 (GW-BASIC, class of adult learners)
  • Continued training work with Workgroup Institute (SA Office Automation spin-off)

Artistic Practice

Photography and contemporary art practice running parallel to technology work. Solo and group exhibitions in South Africa and France. Work held in private, corporate, and public collections including Liberty and SAFFCA (Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art). Featured in SA Art Times, Beeld, and ITs Art & Herri.

Current focus: double-exposure photography, embodied/spatial installation, and consent-based life drawing facilitation.

Selected exhibitions:

  • Echoes of Lynch — David Lynch tribute exhibition (Opale Art, France, 2025)
  • Asthesia — solo show
  • bodyTime() — consent-led life drawing series with public installation component
  • Lifescape — spatial/embodied art exploring body-environment continuity
  • Dencity — collaboration with Daniel Hirschmann (Resolution Gallery / Arts on Main)
  • Urban Skins — collaboration with Eric Duplan
  • Various group exhibitions (South Africa, France)

The art practice isn’t separate from the technical work — both involve systems thinking, careful attention to boundaries and permissions, and making abstract structures tangible.

Community & Facilitation

Facilitation practice spanning 35+ years — from early programming instruction (1990) through corporate group facilitation, tertiary education, to current community-based creative practice.

Founder & Lead Facilitator

Life Drawing Randburg Community | 5+ years

Established and facilitate inclusive creative space for artists at all levels. Designed consent-based protocols, welcoming frameworks, and session structures that balance structure with creative freedom.

Regenerative Culture Contributor

Active in climate action, mutual aid, and disaster response networks. Coordinated logistics for Extinction Rebellion (XR) World online conference featuring Brian Eno, Vandana Shiva, and Roger Hallam. Work recognised by climate scientist Dr. Jem Bendell.

Education & Training

  • BA (Information Design) — University of Pretoria
  • Diploma in Assessment & Facilitation — Damelin
  • Clean Language & Symbolic Modeling — David Grove methodology (international training)
  • Non-degree studies (University of South Africa): Formal Logic, Discrete Mathematics, Industrial Psychology, Computer Science
  • Additional training: Human Capacity Development, Leadership Development, Enneagram

Technical Competencies

Architecture & Patterns: Systems integration, API design, permission regimes, consent architecture, idempotent sync, observability, documentation-as-specification

Languages & Frameworks: PHP, Laravel, JavaScript, Python, Flutter/Dart, SQL, WordPress (full-stack), HTML/CSS

Practices: Version control (Git), structured AI collaboration, technical documentation, long-term system maintenance, provenance tracking

Creative Tools: Adobe Creative Suite, digital photography, print production, exhibition design

What I’m Looking For

Roles where systems thinking, ethical design, and cross-domain fluency create value. This could be:

  • AI tooling & workflow design — building the human-AI collaboration layer
  • Platform architecture — especially multi-tenant, integration-heavy, or consent-aware systems
  • Technical leadership — in organisations that care about how their systems affect those they touch
  • Creative technology — where art and engineering inform each other

Open to remote work internationally. Based in South Africa but timezone-flexible.

Influences & Acknowledgments

This work is shaped by: Gregory & Nora Bateson (systems epistemology), Leonard Cohen (integration of opposites), Robert C. Martin (SOLID principles as threshold mechanics), Martha Nussbaum (dignity and objectification), Humberto Maturana & Francisco Varela (autopoiesis), and many human teachers, collaborators, and peers.

For the full specification of influences, methodology, and philosophical framework, see the README.

Testimonials

“Andre is one of those few people that just ‘gets’ web marketing. He’s insightful and has a wide reaching tech and design skillset. It’s not uncommon to get bounced ideas and quick fix solutions implemented at 2am in the morning. I enjoy working new concepts through with Andre as he’s always one step ahead of the conversation and brings an innovative perspective.”

— Jonathan Miller, CEO, Offerforge

“Andre was one of the most enthusiastic and dedicated designers and teachers I came across in the 6 years I spent in South Africa. He has a thirst for knowledge and commitment to creativity that are unparalleled. Any student would be lucky to have him as a teacher, any team as a colleague.”

— Nathaniel Stern, Full Professor of Art & Engineering, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee

“A pragmatic design for virtue, executing under constraint.”

Note: This CV is the public interface — a compressed projection of a fuller specification. The README repository contains the more complete methodology, philosophical framework, and documented praxis.