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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The Red Dot breaks 5,000!
We just passed 5,000 hits this morning – fantastic! We at the Red Dot are very happy, and grateful for your continued readership! If there’s anything you’d like to see more or less of, please let us know. With gratitude, Jackie and Christine Read more
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Even more ARTstor additions and agreements
Ever busy ARTstor has announced these new additions to their Digital Library: Dov Friedman: America and European Architecture: approximately 560 new photographs of historic and contemporary architecture in San Francisco, Washington DC and New York (38% of projected 1,500 total images completed; keyword search: dovfriedman) Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) Visual Resources Collection:… Read more
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Arounder – a new way to visit cities virtually
A new website targeted at travelers can have some great applications for historians as well. Arounder lets you pick a building or site and view it in the round. It works with Google Maps to help you find a site (or you can choose from a list of highlights and virtual tours) – double-click on… Read more
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Van Gogh’s letters now available online
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, in conjunction with the Huygens Institute, has digitized all 902 known letters written by and to Vincent van Gogh. You can do a keyword search as well as search by period, correspondent, place, or those with sketches. While you can view a scan of each letter, the site also… Read more
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Photographer Irving Penn dies at 92
Irving Penn, who started as fashion photography contributor at Vogue in 1943 and successfully crossed over to art photography, has died. A full obituary is here at the LA Times. The exhibition Irving Penn: Small Trades is on at the Getty Museum until January 10, 2010. Read more
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Bluestonehenge, a sister site to Stonehenge, found
Archaeologists in England have uncovered a site thought to be linked to the famous Stonehenge. This “little sister” henge, located just 2.8km away along the River Avon, was dubbed Bluestonehenge since it was originally constructed of 25 blue Preseli stones. It is believed this riverain connection marked a funerary processional route from Bluestonehenge toward Stonehenge.… Read more