The Red Dot takes its name from the small sticker that once marked slides in a physical archive, flagging them as worth a second look. We’re keeping that spirit alive here.
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.
The Red Dot © 2025 is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
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Rembrandt Database offers a rich research resource
The Rembrandt Database is dedicated to gathering and presenting past and current scholarship (with their sources) about the 17th-century Netherlandish artist. Still in beta, the goal of the site is to foster “a platform for the presentation of new interpretations” through a collaborative effort between numerous museums, research institutions and individual scholars worldwide. Currently there… Read more
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Architect Oscar Niemeyer dies at 104
Brazilian-born architect Oscar Niemeyer died on Wednesday at a hospital in Rio de Janeiro, just shy of his 105th birthday. via BBC and New York Times; photo and written tributes at ArchDaily Read more
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Rijksmuseum launches its collection digitally in Rijksstudio
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam now offers RijksStudio, a vast and ground-breaking online presentation of 125,000 works in its collection. The site, which is a “prelude” to the physical museum’s reopening April 13, 2013, contains high resolution images with which users “can do whatever they like”: create your own printed creations or collect and share image… Read more
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Charles and Ray Eames’ Powers of Ten
A Slate essay revisits the iconic Charles and Ray Eames nine-minute film Powers of Ten created for IBM and narrated by physicist Philip Morrison. Illustrated with the video and a “Making of…” slideshow, the essay discusses the ground breaking process behind the awe-inspiring still and aerial photography that captures Chicago. Read more
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Courtauld hosts Gothic Ivories Project
The Courtauld Institute of Art has launched the Gothic Ivories Project, an online database of over 2800 images of ivory sculptures made in Western Europe between ca. 1200-ca. 1530 (with some neo-Gothic pieces as well). Search specifics, browse works by keyword, location and type, or visit the informational pages for site tips and tools. Additionally,… Read more
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Recent MDID content additions
It’s been awhile since we gave an update of new content in MDID, the IRC’s online image database. So here’s a summary of some of the great, unique architecture-related content added in recent months: UCSB buildings: photos, drawings and plans. We’ve been working with the Office of Campus Planning and Design (thanks Dennis Whelan!) to… Read more