webday

=**WEB-DAY 2**=

On Thursday afternoon discussed podcasting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast with a view to creating an MADA Podcast.

We have the equipment (decent mic etc), so in terms of a list of things we need...

1 - webspace - http://www.dreamhost.com/shared/comparison.html

2 - we get a free domain name with the deal.

3 - Editor!

It was suggested that we post material monthly, and that the material be non-specific - ie. it can be about project work or events or ideas to do with Art/Digital/tech/theory etc.

=**WEB-DAY 1**=

Web-day 1 worked pretty well, based loosely on the above mindmap, with discussion/theory in the morning leading nicely into the workshop practical side of things in the afternoon.

The aim of both discussion and workshop can be talked about in terms of building a vocabulary of tools and skills for web design/art, but with an emphasis on theory in the morning and practise in the afternoon. As it happened, the structure of the day was pretty casual, in part due to the colloquim, but also because of Wave submission and assessment stuff. No onliners unfortunately. Perhaps next time?

The subjects for discussion, as penned out here on the wiki and in the cafe on Thursday morning informed the structure of the mind-map.

Discussion
1 - Corporate v's Arts was put down in order to perform some critical analysis on the design of a variety of web-sites with varying agendas. How does the agenda affect the design? Questions like these help build a vocabulary. Amazon was brought before the jury, and we talked about its ubiquitous easy to navigate classic retail layout. We then looked at Richard Stallman's very simple HTML based site. Phoebe made the point even he had made a design choice.

2. How interactivity affects design - we didn't really get going on this one. Next time.

3. Offline - as above

4. Form and Function is kind of a header for all of the above. We obviously talked about it therefore. Also to be continued.

Workshop
Critiquing others sites - we did start to get stuck into this, but because time was getting on we decided to have a look at some practical work with Flash. Luisa, generous spirited as always provided the lessons! Although there's not much can be done in a short space of time.

Next Time
- Continuation Critiquing Form and Function of sites toward a better vocabulary of design.

- Continuation of discussion and practise with various tools - dreamweaver, flash, java, XML, HTML etc...

- Discussion of topics not covered last time and/or new topics.

- MADA podcast