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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Image resources available to all UCSB users
We keep a growing list of resources here – there are links to our collection database (VRC-MDID), ARTstor, plus many other image resources, organized and annotated. Some of these are open to the public, some are licensed for UCSB use. Please visit, and let us know if you find something great to add, or notice… Read more
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Get oriented at The Red Dot
Welcome to the new blog of the Visual Resources Collection at UCSB, The Red Dot. In case you don’t get that reference, it’s the little red dot in the corner of our 35mm slides that help you with orientation. And that’s what we’re here for – orientation, information, hot tips, and more. We’ll be posting… Read more