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: Conference Call for Abstracts – IASTE 2020: Virtual Traditions
The 18th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments (IASTE), Virtual Traditions: The Transience of Tradition in Changing Geographies and Global Landscapes, has put out a call for Paper and Poster Abstracts that support any of the three tracks within the conference theme: Theorizing the Virtual and the Traditional in… Read more
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DH Monday: Dynamic Maps Using CSV, Google Earth, KML and ArcGIS Online
The Digital Scholarship Lab at University of Rochester’s River Campus Libraries outlines the process and outcome of the final course project for History 252: Immigration in the Americas, where students created Dynamic Maps Using CSV, Google Earth, KML and ArcGIS Online. In the project, “…[s]tudents developed original research based on archival and primary sources to… Read more
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DH Monday: Mapping the Whitney Biennial
According to the creators of Mapping the Whitney Biennial, “[m]apping these [artists’s] locations tells a story of influence and power — but also one of friendships and creative communities, of housing prices and economic change, of landscape and light. Here are some of its facets.” Methodology: Between 1932 and 1975, the Whitney’s Annual and Biennial… Read more
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ArchDaily’s Sustainability Glossary: J-K-L
Since architects and designers [and architectural historians!] carry a responsibility of building a substantial future, ArchDaily has put together an A-Z list of every sustainability term that you might come across. Every week, a new set of letters will be published, helping you stay well-rounded on everything related to sustainable architecture and design. Here are… Read more
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DH Monday: Call for Reviewers: October Issue of ARLIS/NA Multimedia & Technology Reviews
ARLIS/NA Multimedia & Technology Reviews Co-editors are seeking volunteers to author reviews for the following resources for the October 2019 issue: Bauhaus: Building the New Artist Burckhardt Source Digital Museum of Shadow Facendo il Libro Fashion History Timeline OER Commons The Pudding WikiArquitectura To volunteer, complete the Reviewer Interest form by Monday, July 29. Initial… Read more
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DH Monday: Digital Humanities GIS Projects
The blog Anterotesis has a long list of Digital Humanities GIS (Geographical Information Systems) projects. See this post and this one for background, and Mapping Resources for (you guessed it) resources. These are not projects to digitize old maps, but investigations [the blogger’s emphasis]. This is a great source to see some project already out there.… Read more