The Red Dot takes its name from the small sticker that once marked slides in a physical archive, flagging them as worth a second look. We’re keeping that spirit alive here.
At MIRL, we engage with art history, digital humanities, and material culture through hands-on research and archival projects. Guided by our core principles—critical engagement with visual and material culture, ethical stewardship of images and data, and innovative approaches to research and pedagogy—we work at the intersection of technology and the humanities. We are especially interested in how digital tools can expand the study of images, objects, and spaces.
The Red Dot © 2025 is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
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UCSB Library California Ethnic & Multicultural Archives (CEMA) Artist in Residence
Melanie Carvantes UCSB Library’s California Ethnic & Multicultural Archives (CEMA), Las Maestras Center for Xican[X] Indigenous Thought, Art and Social Praxis; and the Mellichamp Chairs for Racial Environmental Justice Fund are pleased to announce the Artist in Residence: Melanie Cervantes. This collaboration includes the Art Department and Santa Barbara Public Library and will bring the… Read more
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The Open Copyright Education Advisory Network’s (OCEAN) Spring Discussion Series
Click here to learn more about OCEAN Remote access to Film and Video for Research, Teaching, Exhibition and Learning in Libraries, Archives and Museums April 10, 2026 at 1pm Eastern/10am Pacific Join a panel of experts to examine the possibilities that enable remote access, discuss the distinctions between identifiable audiences and the public, and the potential… Read more
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Carpentry @ UCSB Spring 2026 Workshops: A gentle, hands-on introduction to containers and virtual machines
Dates TBD This lesson introduces virtual machines and containers to a novice audience of researchers with interest or work that intersects data management, data science, or research computing. Stay tuned, registration opens in the second week of the quarter! Join the Carpentry mailing list to get notified as soon as it goes live. Read more
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Carpentry @ UCSB Spring 2026 Workshops: Introduction to Data Analysis with Python
April 13, 15 & 20, 10:00am – 1:00pm / UCSB Library, Room 2509 This three-day workshop offers a comprehensive introduction to Python, specifically designed for participants with no prior programming experience. Through the use of Jupyter notebooks, learners will get started coding in Python. The workshop will cover essential skills such as data loading and… Read more
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Carpentry @ UCSB Spring 2026 Workshops: Version Control with Git and GitHub
April 7 & 9, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm / UCSB Library, Room 2509. In this beginner-friendly workshop, you’ll learn the basics of Git for tracking changes and GitHub for sharing and collaborating on code. On day 1 we’ll cover setting up projects, tracking changes, and publishing to GitHub. On day 2, you’ll work with… Read more
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Weave Your Own Story with Telar
In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn how to use Telar, an open-source platform for building interactive visual narratives around high-resolution images. Telar produces free-standing websites using a minimal-computing approach — no servers, no databases, no installation, and no ongoing maintenance costs. Participants will work through the full workflow: setting up a project on GitHub,… Read more