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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Photographs revealed of Tibet 100 years ago
An album of extremely rare photographs of Tibet and its people, taken during a 1903 British mission, has both been publicized for the first time and auctioned off. The amazing photos were taken by Officer John Claude White and are the first known of their kind. Read or listen to an NPR interview by Renee… Read more
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Get out your metal detectors!
A lucky person with a metal detector uncovered a Roman helmet last year, which is now going up for auction at Christie’s (on Oct. 7). It’s expected to fetch between $315,000 and $470,000. It is one of only three of its caliber and design (with complete face masks) ever discovered in England. It was found… Read more
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Uffizi masterpieces in high resolution
An Italian company, Haltadefinizione, has created what they call “real high resolution” reproductions of six famous paintings from the Florentine museum. If you’re wondering just how high resolution these are, the company photographed the six paintings at 3 to 20 billion pixels (yes, billion). However, while their tagline reads “If you can’t come to them,… Read more
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Resnick Pavilion opens at LACMA
The Renzo Piano-designed pavilion at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will open to the public on October 2. Funded mainly from a $45 million gift from the philanthropists Stewart and Lynda Resnick, the 45,000 square foot space opens with three exhibitions: 1. Sculptures and vessels from Mesoamerican antiquity; 2. Two hundred years of… Read more
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Fisk University and Georgia O’Keeffe, continued
We mentioned last week that Fisk University in Nashville, in trying to alleviate financial woes, is attempting to use its Stieglitz Collection in revenue-generating ventures. In response, Fisk alumni and students are planning an on-campus vigil this evening to protest any removal of the Collection from university grounds. Meanwhile, the University is protesting a proposal… Read more