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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Fall quarter IRC workshops
Now that Fall quarter is underway, we at the IRC would like to welcome back faculty, and new and returning graduate students. We are offering a series of instructional workshops this quarter, and in future quarters we will repeat some and offer others. The first workshop will be on Friday, October 19, 3-4pm in Ellison… Read more
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Save the Date: Los Angeles Art Show 2013
It’s that time of year again to mark your calendars for the Annual Los Angeles Art Show, which will be held January 23-27, 2013 in the South Hall of the LA Convention Center. This year is even more comprehensive, with four distinct “fairs-within-a-fair” (last year there were three): Modern & Contemporary, Historic & Traditional, Vintage… Read more
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More good news in digital art history publications: MetPublications
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has made nearly 650 titles published from 1964 to the present available online, which “offers unparalleled in-depth access to the Museum’s renowned print and online publications, covering art, art history, archaeology, conservation, and collecting.” This will be is a huge boost for researchers, who can browse sections dedicated to the… Read more
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New options for electronic art history publications
Publishing art history books has always been fraught with problems: image rights, high quality printing costs, and diminishing opportunities for print publication contracts, to name a few. Yale University Press is, with the help of a Mellon Foundation grant, exploring options to make digital publication a greater possibility for topics in art history. One great… Read more
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California moves forward on free digital textbook access
Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation that will provide popular textbooks to California students as free downloads. The first stage includes State funding for 50 open-source digital textbooks. The second stage will be to establish an Open Source host/library. The goal is to lighten the high prices students now pay for textbooks. It will be interesting… Read more
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Experience the documenta 13 3D tour
For those who were unable to get to Kassel, Germany this summer for documenta 13, here’s your chance to virtually experience installations at all venues. The 360°-Tour offers participants numerous ways to navigate the vast system of projects: by visitor’s favorites (with accompanying video), by a room-by-room “walk through” of each venue, by individual works of… Read more