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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Calisphere: A Repository of California Digital Collections
From Calisphere: Calisphere provides free access to more than 2,000 collections digitized and contributed by all ten campuses of the University of California and more than 300 cultural heritage organizations (libraries, archives, and museums and historial societies ) throughout the state. Each of these organizations has specific collection emphases, which may be informed by local… Read more
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DH Monday: The Quantification of Urban Space
The Quantification of Urban Space: an introduction We live in a world of numbers. Weight and length are measured before birth. Footsteps are tallied. Square footage is priced. Air temperatures are calculated. Ice melt is tabulated. From the most intimate aspects of our lives to the global scales of our planetary environment, our world and… Read more
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DH Monday: Black Digital Devotions: Ethno-Religious Transnationalism and Data Gathering in the Era of Pandemic Travel Restrictions
UCSB Center for Black Studies Research presents: Associate Professor Roberto Strongman“Black Digital Devotions: Ethno-Religious Transnationalism and Data Gathering in the Era of Pandemic Travel Restrictions”Tuesday, April 20, 2:00 PM This talk explores the creation of a virtual devotional space for the Black Christ of Portobelo that would enable an alternative continuation of the pilgrimages that… Read more
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DH Monday: CFP: From Iconology to Digital Visual Studies
Call for Papers: Styles Revisited: From Iconology to Digital Visual Studies (online/ to take place every other Monday at 2pm (GMT+1), with the dates a priori considered : September 20, October 18, November 15, December 13, 2021 and January 24, February 7, March 7, April 11, May 16, June 13, 2022)Submission Deadline: May 15, 2021… Read more
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DH Monday: UC Merced/UCSB Library Carpentry Workshop
There will be a joint Library Carpentry workshop with UC Merced, teaching the fundamentals of working with messy data. This workshop is geared toward learners in the humanities, social sciences, or natural sciences and those who work with messy data. The lessons include Git/Bash, Regular Expressions, and OpenRefine. Learners will learn to: automate repetitive, boring, error-prone… Read more
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The Louvre Has Digitized 482,000 Artworks
Even if a summer in Paris is not possible, one of the world’s most massive museums has announced an encompassing digitization of its vast collection. Read more Read more