Presented at FITC Amsterdam 2015 More info at www.FITC.ca/amsterdam Unfinished Business with Ubi de Feo Ubi is an idea factory, but when it comes to those that are scribbled down on scraps of paper that would ordinarily seem destined never to be brought to life, his motto might as well be ‘never say die’. For his talk at last year’s FITC, when he went deep into the project archives to pull out an idea he’d had in 1987 – and finally built that C64 relay controller programmed on cassette tape. When it comes to your old ideas, it pays to stubbornly refuse to let them go. That’s not to say that ALL of Ubi’s old project ideas have eventually been realized. In fact, most of the ideas he’s had in the past 30 years are still left unbuilt, in idea limbo – not gone though, and definitely not forgotten. Sadly paying the bills doesn’t leave room for following through on personal project ideas or continuous experimentation – especially with the myriad of ideas clogging up the aforementioned limbo – so what happens to old ideas? Are they deemed to fail? Are you just wasting your time? Ubi is dead set to prove that kicking old ideas around – even after 30 years – hasn’t been a waste of his, and it certainly won’t be a waste of yours. OBJECTIVE One technologist’s creative process proves the value of old ideas, and disproves the belief that you’re ‘too geek’ to be creative. TARGET AUDIENCE Creatives in general, Project Managers, Technologists, Coders, CEOs. FIVE THINGS AUDIENCE MEMBERS WILL LEARN How to spend real time on your own ideas. How to find like-minded people to support your creative process. That often what people see as a waste of time, isn’t. Sometimes dropping a personal project enriches your life and knowledge. How to offer your help projects/products you believe in to gain trust.

1. 45:00

2. 44:59

3. 44:58

4. 44:57

5. 44:56

6. 44:55

7. 44:54

8. 7 seconds of your life
you’ll never get back.
you’re welcome.

9. average human heart rate
60-80 bpm

10. we live at 60* beats per minute
86400* beats per day
*: only exception being the occurrence of a leap second

11. Lost.
For ever.

12. “Ray Liotta” Mode

14. bring guns to De Niro

15. paranoid about helicopter

16. “Wrong guns!”

17. bring brother to the doctor

18. make meatballs sauce

19. “[…] make sure […]”

20. test “the product”

21. argue with mistress

22. dinner with family

23. get arrested

24. not a
“wise guy”

26. Ubi de Feo
“creative technologist”

30. Ubi de Feo
very curious human being

35. photo: John Woodroof
FITC Amsterdam 2014

36. = awesome work

37. What I “don’t” do

42. “If you let time go by
someone else will build it.”
“someone will “steal” your
idea.”

43. .

44. ..

45. …

47. wireless RFID platform [ 2011 ]
Phi-Node

52. iPad Arduino Bridge
hardware prototyping interface for iPad

55. Friendly
!
Hackable
!
Easy
!
Portable
Light
!
Arduino
!
Handy
!
Unique
Wireless
!
Hardware
!
Interface
!
Module

56. Wireless
!
Hardware
!
Interface
!
Module

57. Wireless Hardware interface Module

63. SYNc
studio metronome

77. [ DEMO TIME ]

79. I will keep doing this.
I will keep “wasting” time.
Till time will be no more.

80. .

81. ..

82. …

83. So long, and thank you for all the time.

84. Ubi de Feo
pixelated boyfriend
!
http://ubidefeo.com
@ubidefeo