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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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
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LACMA and Getty acquire Mapplethorpe archive
Over 2,000 works by Robert Mapplethorpe and an extensive collection of negatives, personal letters, and other documentation has been jointly acquired by LACMA and the J. Paul Getty Trust from the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. The partners were chosen for several reasons, including the emergence of Los Angeles as a major cultural center, and the Getty… Read more
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Photoshop Disasters!
Have you ever come across a print advertisement and thought something just wasn’t quite right? Check out PsD: Photoshop Disasters for a collection of unfortunate, atrocious, and what-were-they-thinking examples of when Photoshop use goes horribly, horribly wrong. Read more
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Art on the go with ARTstor Mobile
ARTstor has just unveiled ARTstor Mobile, with access to all 1,000,000+ images from the ARTstor Digital Library through iPad, iPhone, and the iPod Touch to registered ARTstor users. It’s not an app but through the Safari browser you can search, browse, zoom, and view saved image groups (to which you have access). A great feature… Read more