Named after the small red sticker that once guided scholars through legacy 35mm slides, The Red Dot is here to help you navigate the ever-evolving landscape of visual and material research. While rooted in the University of California, Santa Barbara community, our posts are open to all.
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.
Here, we’ll share insights on Digital Art History and Architectural History, highlight new image and data resources, discuss copyright and ethical considerations, and spotlight events that shape our field.
The Red Dot © 2025 is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
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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
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![[Carpentry] Workshop – How to make a map with ArcGIS Online – Workshop 1](https://mirl.arthistory.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/ArcGIS-logo.png)
[Carpentry] Workshop – How to make a map with ArcGIS Online – Workshop 1
“How to make a map with ArcGIS Online” the first in a three-part workshop series designed to add mapping skills to your research toolkit. Workshop 1: I want to make a publication ready map The goal of this session is to demystify GIS (Geographic Information Systems). By the end of this workshop, you will know… Read more