Ubi de Feo explained

Ubi de Feo
Birth Date:1974
Birth Place:Italy
Nationality:Italian
Education:University of Salerno
Occupation:Creative Technologist, Educator

Ubi de Feo (born 1974) is a creative technologist and educator.[1] In his off-time (mostly when doing the dishes) he thinks about ways to improve things or invent new ones. Curiosity drives everything in his life and work.[2] In 2007 de Feo began teaching programming, electronics and other things to whoever wants to learn, often developing his own methods to explain really complicated things in a more tangible, down-to-earth fashion. He does do not try to teach things he doesn’t thoroughly understand, which often leads him to learn entirely new subjects in order to explain them to himself and others.

Education

"I have learned most of what I know by interacting with people far from my location. Internet has been my campus and will be till the end of one of us two, be it mine or the internet's," Ubi de Feo. From 1993-1995 de Feo was enrolled at the University in Salerno (IT) where he studied Electrical and Electronics Engineering. Bored with that track he dropped out and switched his focus to Social Studies. In 1995 he was drafted into the Navy. Shortly thereafter de Feo was in a serious Vespa accident and spent six months in bed recovering and thinking.[2]

Professional life

In 2000 de Feo became a professional creative coder. He began experimenting with mobile devices in 2001. In 2002 he moved to Amsterdam where he worked as a Creative Technologist for Wieden+Kenney [W+K interaction design lab startup], set up the collective Hello, Savants! [a fellowship of creative people with unique disabilities and unexpected talents], and went to work for himself as twodotone. In this range of capacities de Feo produced both personal and commercial projects that span disciplines from teaching and coding to sound and animation while developing projects for Nike, Nokia [Nokia Flagship Stores Bluetooth Framework], Gore-Tex, Heineken, Bottega Veneta, Mandarina Duck, Electronic Arts, Reebok, MTV networks, Nationaal Historisch Museum Amsterdam, Belastingdienst and many more. Currently de Feo is the Director of Secret Space Program at MediaMonks and is a 2015 visiting faculty at Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID).[3]

Teaching

Ubi de Feo's project “from 0 to C” [4] is a series of workshops – and a framework of objects, methods, stories and games [5] – that aim at teaching programming using a more creative, human approach. Through the use of tangible, hand-made objects, “from 0 to C” attempts to establish a clear understanding of how a computer works and what a programming language actually is.[6]

During years of teaching—or trying to teach—Arduino coding to creatives, de Feo ran into the following scenarios: “For the beginner, the artist, the industrial designer who wants to start prototyping, [the difficulties of learning to code] can appear as walls they constantly have to crash against,” de Feo observed. “If you ask them why, most of the times the answer will be something along the lines of I’m a creative person, this structured stuff is not for me." His Arduino courses at Mediamatic with Massimo Banzi[7] revealed "a really steep entry curve" barrier and further motivated de Feo to develop a new approach.[8] "People got really really excited about the electronic part of it and the entry of the code was really complex. I have studied so many languages that I have learnt a lot of tricks and things that could be useful in learning a new programming language. I wanted to teach people Arduino but I wanted to teach them really really well."[2] Realizing that the conventional approach to teaching coding was not working for the [creative] type of student, de Feo created “From 0 to C,” starting with a rather radical step: Removing all of the computers from the classroom. Instead, he introduced physical objects the students are meant to interact with.[9] “From 0 to C” allows people to visualize what happens inside the computer when a program runs – how bytes are moved around and manipulated by the program.[5]

Regarding the “From 0 to C”outcomes, de Feo explains, "The scope of this primer is not teaching you to be the best coder or hacker, but to be one who knows what you are dealing with and has a better attitude towards problem solving."[10] "After learning the ins and outs of how stupid computers actually are, [Ubi]’s students then learn the syntax of a language of their choice (C, JavaScript, or Python, for example), and write a few programs."[11] [9] [12]

Ubi de Feo has taught the Introduction to Electronics class at CIID (Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design) in both 2015 and 2016 during their Interaction Design Programme.

Select Workshops

Select Projects

Lectures

Press

Publications

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Ubi de Feo. Mediamatic. 8 December 2022.
  2. http://artistsandalgorists.com/ubi-de-feo/ Ubi de Feo
  3. Web site: Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design » Ubi de Feo . ciid.dk . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150315070058/http://ciid.dk/education/visiting-faculty/faculty-2015/ubi-de-feo/ . 2015-03-15.
  4. Web site: "from 0 to C" – Teaching programming using a tangible approach. 11 July 2012.
  5. Web site: Learning Computer Programming in the Physical World. 31 July 2012.
  6. Web site: WORKSHOP "From 0 to C".
  7. Web site: Arduino Basic & Bluetooth Workshops • Digicult | Digital Art, Design and Culture.
  8. http://summn.com/2009/11/arduino-workshop-at-mediamatic/ Arduino workshop at Mediamatic
  9. Web site: Ubi de Feo Figures Out How to Teach Coding to Code-Challenged Designers. Core77. 8 December 2022.
  10. Web site: Workshops teach programming with offline, playful approach (Wired UK) . www.wired.co.uk . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120714073538/http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-07/13/tangible-coding-workshops . 2012-07-14.
  11. Web site: From 0 to C: Teaching Programming Without a Computer. 19 July 2012.
  12. Web site: How to code like a pro. 14 November 2013.
  13. Web site: Showing the mysterious technologies driving everyday objects. 22 July 2015.
  14. Web site: KIKK festival 2013. 11 November 2013.
  15. Web site: Meg grant :: Eye film institute quiz booth buttons.
  16. Web site: We the Dutch First Party.
  17. Web site: Bluetooth.
  18. Web site: RadarFunk. Rhizome. 8 December 2022.
  19. Web site: RADARFUNK - YouTube. YouTube.
  20. Web site: Img_0481. 9 June 2006.
  21. Web site: Artist Review. 29 January 2007.
  22. Web site: Ubi de Feo's Majic Coloring Wall.
  23. http://www.scratch2015ams.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Scratch2015programma-web.pdf Scratch Programme 2015
  24. Web site: Ubi de Feo.
  25. Web site: Sell Event Tickets, Memberships, Digital Products and Raise Funds - Explara.
  26. Web site: Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design » Ubi de Feo.
  27. https://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-07/13/tangible-coding-workshops Tangible coding workshops
  28. Web site: Getting Started With Arduino 3rd Edition - Book – Arduino Store USA . store-usa.arduino.cc . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150403231430/http://store-usa.arduino.cc/products/b000001 . 2015-04-03.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ubi de Feo".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.