About Luminae

Why Luminae exists

Luminae is a sense-making and education framework for the algorithmic age. Modern information systems do more than inform us. They shape what feels normal, desirable, urgent and inevitable, often without our awareness.

Luminae makes those shaping forces visible, helping people recognise how influence operates, understand the systems behind it and make more conscious choices. It is not anti-technology, nor does it tell people what to think. Its purpose is to provide the insight and practical tools needed to engage with information environments deliberately rather than passively. The individual remains the agent. Luminae provides the lens.

Harry Kemsley

Harry Kemsley OBE MBE has spent much of his career working at the point where information, technology and human judgement meet.

During 25 years in the Royal Air Force, Harry accumulated more than 2,500 flying hours on the Phantom F4 and Tornado F Mk3 in air-defence roles, and on the Sentinel R Mk1 and Shadow R Mk1 in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. These roles placed him inside complex information systems designed to gather, interpret and communicate what was happening, often under intense pressure and with incomplete or uncertain evidence.

Harry also undertook numerous operational deployments across the Middle East, Africa and Central America in leadership and liaison roles. He commanded No. V (Army Cooperation) Squadron, leading more than 350 personnel from all three Armed Services and overseeing its inaugural operational deployment to Afghanistan. He concluded his RAF career in 2011 as Deputy Air Component Commander for RAF aircraft and personnel deployed in the Middle East. He was appointed MBE in 1995 and OBE in 2010.

After leaving the RAF, Harry held senior roles in strategy, organisational change, technology, global sales and business development. Most recently, as President of Janes Group, he led the continuing transformation of an organisation whose purpose is to turn vast quantities of open-source defence data into trusted intelligence for decision-makers around the world.

Across these roles, Harry has seen the same underlying challenge repeatedly: access to more information does not necessarily produce greater understanding. Sources must be tested, context matters, and the systems that select and present information can shape the conclusions people reach.

That insight sits at the heart of Luminae. Harry brings his experience of intelligence, technology and decision-making into the everyday information environment, helping people recognise how modern systems influence attention and perception, and giving them practical ways to make more conscious, examined choices.

Sean Corbett

Air Vice-Marshal (Retired) Sean Corbett CB MBE has spent his career examining how people turn incomplete, contested and sometimes deliberately misleading information into sound judgements.

During 30 years as a Royal Air Force intelligence officer, Sean worked at the highest levels of his profession, analysing complex global events and helping senior decision-makers distinguish reliable evidence from misinformation, disinformation and distraction. His work demanded disciplined evaluation of sources, recognition of patterns and biases, and an understanding of how the way information is selected and presented can shape perception.

Sean also held extensive training and mentoring responsibilities, from initial officer development to the most senior levels of joint-warfare leadership. This gave him considerable experience in making complex subjects understandable and helping others develop the confidence to question assumptions and reach their own informed conclusions.

After leaving the RAF in 2018, Sean became a director of a geospatial intelligence company, where he helped advance applications of artificial intelligence to deliver “intelligence as a service”. He now works independently in a number of senior advisory roles and continues to be closely involved in the development and application of open-source intelligence.

Luminae extends these principles beyond the professional intelligence environment. Working with his long-standing colleague and friend Harry Kemsley, Sean applies the habits of good intelligence analysis to the information systems we all encounter: examining where information comes from, why it reaches us, how it is framed and repeated, and how it influences what we come to believe.