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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Kimbell Art Museum to add new building
We’ve said it before and I guess we’ll say it again: times are lean in the museum world, but that’s not preventing another museum from expanding. This time it’s the Kimbell Art Museum, who chose Renzo Piano to design a separate building for the museum’s site. The new building, slated for completion in 2013, will… Read more
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Italy’s first contemporary art museum to open
Italy’s first state museum dedicated solely to contemporary art, MAXXI, will open its doors May 30 in Rome. The name is a play on the abbreviation for “Museum of Art” and the Roman numerals for the 21st century. The Iraqi-born and London-based architect Zaha Hadid won the commission and designed what she envisioned as an… Read more
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New corpse flower set to bloom at Huntington
If you’re a fan of prehistoric-looking, nasty-smelling plants (and who isn’t!?), you’ll want to get to the Huntington Gardens in about two weeks. This flower is the latest offspring of the first Corpse Flower that bloomed in 1999. The last to bloom, in June 2009, was a different offspring. Read more about the plant and… Read more
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Whitney Museum to add new building
Times are lean in the museum world, but the Whitney Museum in New York is finally moving ahead with plans to build a new building, expected to open in 2015. Rather than an annex, the new building may become the sole home of the Whitney collections. The future of the current museum, the Madison Ave.… Read more
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Paintings displayed in Iraq mosque a first
Paintings depicting scenes from the life of Imam Hussein (grandson of the Prophet Muhammad) are on display at a mosque in a Shiite area of Sadr City, Iraq. Under Saddam Hussein such displays were forbidden, but a gradual increase in religious freedom has resulted in the approval and acceptance of these paintings. A total of… Read more
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Mark Ryden’s timelapse painting
This video on YouTube of Mark Ryden painting “Incarnation” in 4:27 minutes is really fascinating, and useful as an illustration of the process of painting. Read more about Mark Ryden and his work here. Read more