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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Experiencing the earthquake in Toyo Ito’s Mediatheque in Sendai
Culture Monster has posted a video someone took during Friday’s earthquake while braving it out under a desk in Mediatheque cultural center in Sendai. As Christopher Hawthorne points out, both the length of the quake and the sway of the building are amazing to watch, especially since the structure seems to survive roughly intact. Read more
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Leo Steinberg, 1920-2011
Art historian Leo Steinberg died on Sunday. A scholar and art critic specializing in artists of the Italian Renaissance, he also wrote extensively on 20th century art. Read the full New York Times obituary here. Read more
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Rare Book Room showcases great books of the world
The website Rare Book Room offers a wide variety of books digitized by a company called Octavo (it is unclear whether they are still in business). Octavo digitally photographed a selection of books–about 400–from some of the world’s greatest libraries at medium/high resolution (in some cases at over 200 megabytes per page). Users can browse… Read more
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Friday Fun: Name that painter
In anticipation of finals, or a diversion therefrom, try this online quiz that requires you to name the painters of important works of art. The quiz makers were kind enough to give a couple of examples for most artists to help you out. Answers can be found here. Read more
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The latest announcements from ARTstor
Here are the most recent additions to ARTstor’s Digital Library: American Folk Art Museum: 1,659 images from their permanent collection of traditional folk art and contemporary self-taught artists The City College of New York: 1,806 images of objects acquired by The City College, including David and Lenore Levy Collection of Contemporary Photography and Percent for… Read more
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Now online: 19th- & 20th-century art and satire journals
The University Library at the University of Heidelberg, with support from the German Research Foundation (DFG), now hosts complete digital access to nineteen art and satire journals from the 19th to early 20th century. These large scans are just the latest in the efforts by the Library to digitize their holdings of historic literature; for… Read more