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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Faking it at the National Gallery
One of the summer exhibitions at the National Gallery, London explores scientific examination of paintings and what it can reveal. Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries showcases works from the museum’s permanent collection that have been scientifically examined and some discoveries meant re-attribution, refutation or reappraisal. The show runs until 12 September but, if you… Read more
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A helpful copyright chart from Cornell University
If you have ever wondered whether an image or text is copyrighted or in the public domain, this chart from Cornell University is a great reference (and it was updated in January, 2010). Copyright is never easy to figure out, but at least this has all the rules and exceptions in one place. Read more
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Treasure trove of vintage advertisements
Vintage advertisements are a great way to make a point about progress, illustrate certain design aesthetics, or just to have a laugh. Here are some good sites with compilations of old advertisements; you can also find a lot just by Googling. Vintage Ad Browser – thousands of ads, organized by subject and decade Vintage ads… Read more
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Share large files online with YouSendIt.com
If you need to send large documents or images quickly, you might try YouSendIt.com, a service that allows you to expedite large files online. Registration is required, but the “Lite” account is free and gives you an individual file size of up to 100M, a 1 GB monthly download limit, and 7 days for the… Read more
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Free tools for organizing your research docs
We recently learned of two terrific FREE tools to help scholars at every level organize the research materials spread all over their computers into a 24/7 library. Both allow you to create a “cloud” of personalized resources that you can log in to from anywhere: Zotero plugs into Firefox and lets you ” collect, manage… Read more
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Update: Caravaggio found
The Red Dot posted last December that Italian researchers were on the hunt for the remains of Baroque painter Caravaggio. The Globe and Mail is now reporting success: while scholars can never be completely certain, they now believe they found partial remains of the artist, who likely died from sunstroke while weakened by syphilis. Read more