Give me an H

We are excited to be featured in the Manchester Evening News about the HTML music video created by @mariaprohyena.

This video promoting the Web Design Foundations Course taught by Chris Mills has gained an impressive amount of attention, including some remixes. We are happy to see MadLab’s fame as a place for realising ideas, however crazy they are, spread. The article called “Give us an H: ‘Geeks’ create hit song and video spelling out what HTML computer language means” gives a bit more background information about the creative output of MadLab’s geeks.

Thanks again for everyone who took part in creating this hit. Big thanks to @samscam for the music and @DeShannon for the choreography and Hanna, Sarah and @paddysteer for knowing the moves.

The next course: Web design foundations 2: HTML Basics is on in a week on Monday, the 23rd of April. The second part teaches all the HTML you’ll need to make your way into web design and development with confidence! From text to tables, and links to images, this course has it all. It is a perfect possibility in getting started with creating your own identity on the web.

Book your place here.

If you haven’t seen the video yet, here it is:

What are you waiting for, start creating your own space on the web!

Upcoming courses

Web Design Foundations 2: HTML Basics 23rd April and 30th April (6pm-9pm)
Web Design Foundations 3: CSS Basics 14th May and 21st May (6pm-9pm)
Web Design Foundations 4: Advanced CSS and HTML topics 11th June and 18th June (6pm-9:30pm)

Here is one by the David Edmundson-Bird @groovegenerator:

And another one by John Rowett (@50quidsoundboy):

We are looking forward to see what else can come out of it.

Here is the original song by Sam and the video by Maria Ruban.

We’re looking forward to seeing what type of projects attendees will create with their newly gained skills! We’ve already had news from Stuart at the The Neighbourhood. He’s created a Cubic Light Tree which you can see in the video at the bottom of this post.

VVVV is a hybrid graphical/textual programming environment for easy prototyping and development. It is designed to facilitate the handling of large media environments with physical interfaces, real-time motion graphics, audio and video that can interact with many users simultaneously.

We are planning to run the course again later this year. If you are interested in this course, please join our mailing list for further updates or e-mail office@madlab.org.uk and we’ll let you know as soon as dates are announced..

Stuart:

With some clever geometric tomfoolery in our blacked out R&D grotto, we created a physical tree made from white boxes, that our designers could use to project their own animated creations back onto.

‘Physical Computing’ and Arduino devices have made physical interaction affordable and available to non-experts. Whether creating interactive installations, information systems, prototyping products, or making new interfaces, there is a whole world of DIY electronics, interaction design and rapid prototyping available through this platform.

On the Beginners Guide to Arduino and Physical Computing you will get you grips with the basics. Starting off by making an LED blink (then two or three…) you’ll finish the day with a mini theramin.

If this is all kids play for you, we have an advanced course run by the forerunner of Internet of Things, Adrian McEwan.  Building the Internet of Things – Arduino and Ethernet (IOT)03 will allow you to connect objects to the world wide web. Some nice examples exploring the Internet of Things include the Twitter Drum made by MadLab’s very own Paul Plowman , a clock that checks your loved ones:

Here is a really sweet project made by ULAB:

Sweet Tweet from Uniform on Vimeo.

If that got you interested then check here for more information and booking.

Omniversity’s Short Story Writing Workshops have proven to be a success. This was the second time we ran the course and hopefully there will also be a third. Writers learned about structuring and editing their stories, but also how to communicate with the publishers. For many it seemed to be a great motivation to take their writing ambitions further.

Web Programming with SAP’s Internet Communication Framework with DJ Adams from Prohyena on Vimeo.

Get the course information here.

it can usurp all other platforms in terms of development speed, power and flexibility.

VVVV + MapTools : introduction to the tools of projection mapping (2) from Prohyena on Vimeo.

The true power of the tool lies within the elegance within which it makes its features available. VVVV has been used for :

• Long term installations (>3 years runtime)
• Quick installations (<10mins to develop) Vast installations (>50 projectors)
• Deployed installations (>50 units)
• TV shows (The X Factor)
• Hosting websites
• Making my mobile phone ring when the postman arrives if I’m at the cafe downstairs (1 hour development)
• Almost anything

This 2 day course is a hands on ‘by the seat of your pants’ tour of VVVV’s features and how to get started with each bit. But don’t just take our word for it, here’s a testimonial from a past attendee.

I really feel like I’ve learned a proper, brand-new skill. And I’m not done yet! By happy coincidence, I’m already working on a projection piece at work, and after doing this course I’ve switched it up a little and we’ll be projection mapping onto objects instead of a flat surface.

More information and sign up here. Hope to see you there!

Omniversity has sort of a tradition of creating videos for our courses, but we’re taking it up a notch this year with a little song & dance.

We are holding auditions for singers and dancers to promote our Web Design Foundation courses. If you have the tunes and moves or just really love Web Accessibility fill in this form to audition.

Deadline for summiting is 25th Jan

Auditions will be held on the 29th of Jan, Sunday.

Web Design Foundation are modular courses, run by Chris Mill, covering the basics of Web Design, HTML, CSS, and Advanced HMTL & CSS. You can jump in at any level. We’ve successfully run these courses last year, and can’t wait to spread W3C compliance to all and sundry. But don’t just take our word for it, here are some testimonials.

If you think you know someone who could really benefit from these course, why not gift them a Geek Voucher?