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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DH Monday: Upcoming UCSB Center for Black Studies Research Events
As the start of the new academic year approaches, already there are a couple of upcoming digital-scholarship related events in the UCSB Center for Black Studies Research to get on your calendar now! “Surveying the Terrain“: Session 1 of Race, Space, and Place Workshop, Tuesday, October 8, at 12:00pm. This is the first session of… Read more
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DH Monday: New on PLATFORM – City Smarts: An App for Civic Engagement
In her most recent article in PLATFORM, “City Smarts: An App for Civic Engagement,” History of Art & Architecture Professor Swati Chattopadhyay discusses how she gets undergraduates in her ARTHI 136I: The City in History class to think about power and agency in the metropolis — to get smart about cities — by using the… Read more
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Saturday, September 21 is Free Museum Day
This Saturday museums all over the country are opening their doors to visitors for FREE! Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day 2019 is a great chance to visit museums you’ve always wanted to see. Visit the Santa Barbara Museum of Art or LA-area museums such as the Autry Museum of the American West and the Japanese American… Read more
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DH Monday: International Journal for Digital Art History Relaunch
An exciting announcement from the International Journal for Digital Art History (DAHJ) [h/t to Mary Okin]: DAHJ is excited to announce the launch of our new-and-improved website. This relaunch was part of the initiative Publishing Digital Art History, made possible by a generous grant by the Kress Foundation. This allowed us to design a website that more… Read more
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DH Monday: NEH Digital Humanities Advancement Grants
The NEH has posted the upcoming dates for the next round of Digital Humanities Advancement Grants (DHAG) to support digital projects at different stages throughout their lifecycles, from early start-up phases through implementation and sustainability, for up to 24 months. Project areas include Articles, Digital Materials & Publications, Workshops, Reports, Teaching Resources, Digital Infrastructures, and… Read more
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DH Monday, Part II: DH Quarterly Special Issue on AudioVisual DH CFP
Next Monday is Labor Day so we’ve labored to post next week’s topic today: the Digital Humanities Quarterly Special Issue on AudioVisual DH CFP that address digital humanities approaches to audio and/or visual data. The co-editors will feature DH scholars in fields such as art history, history, film studies, media studies, musicology, oral history, and… Read more