MIRL (Material / Image Research Lab)

The Red Dot

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 

  • Find help with ARTstor YouTube tutorials

    ARTstor has put up some terrific short video tutorials on YouTube to help with individual tasks.  The video topics include An Overview of the new ARTstor site, How to Register, How to Make an Image Group, and How to Download Images to PowerPoint.  They’re great for learning something new or just for a refresher. The… Read more

  • Faculty Institute for Teaching with Technology Sept. 15-17

    The sixth “Faculty Institute: Teaching with Technology” will be offered for UCSB faculty members September 15-17, 2009. The Institute is a joint effort of Instructional Development, Instructional Computing, and L&S Information Technology, and will consist of three all-day series of presentations and hands-on workshops.  On Thursday Jackie Spafford will be leading a demonstration called “Incorporating… Read more

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  • More architecture images in ARTstor

    This has been a good month for architecture in our collections!  First the Archivision material that is now in MDID, and now a payload from UC Berkeley.  The Visual Resources Center at UCB’s College of Environmental Design has made an enormous contribution to our UC Shared Images collection available in ARTstor.  More than 20,000 images… Read more

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  • ARTstor newsletter mentions UCSB alumnus

    In the most recent ARTstor newsletter (PDF file) the letter from the Chairman and President that begins on page one describes a case study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.   Our own John Senseney is mentioned in the illustration of the value of image sharing using ARTstor and SAHARA (its related program with the… Read more

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  • Contemporary Arts Forum and the Aeolian Ride

    Santa Barbara’s Contemporary Arts Forum, along with the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition and the Wheelhouse, is co-sponsoring Jessica Findley’s Aeolian Ride, “a mass participatory bicycling performance piece with a sense of humor.” The piece, consisting of 52 people in wind-inflated suits riding bicycles through cities around the world, is scheduled to pass through Santa Barbara… Read more

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  • Archivision Module 4 is now available in MDID

    We’re very happy to report that the 6,080 beautiful Archivision images (the VRA conference raffle grand prize, if you remember) are now available in the VRC image database (MDID).  Select “Archivision Module 4” as the collection you want to search, or click on “Browse” on the menu and select the collection and browse criterion.   You… Read more

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