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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Robert Cornelius and the First Selfie
Robert Cornelius, a Philadelphia photographer, is believed to have taken the world’s first self-portrait — the first selfie — in 1839. The Library, which already had the world’s large collection of his work, in December acquired a donation from Cornelius’ great-great-grand-daughter, Sarah Bodine, of more of his photographic materials. Preservationists are now at work on… Read more
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DH Monday: Call for Reviewers: ARLIS/NA Multimedia & Technology Reviews October 2022 Issue
Reviewer Interest Form Completion Deadline: Friday, July 29 Initial Draft Submission Deadline: Thursday, September 1 ARLIS/NA Multimedia & Technology Reviews Co-editors are seeking volunteers to author reviews for the October 2022 issue. To volunteer, choose a resource from the list below (note: The snippets below are taken from each resource’s web page and are not… Read more
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DH Monday: CFP – Magazén 2023, “Relations”
Abstract Submission Deadline: September 30, 2022 Abstract Acceptance: October 31, 2022 Articles Submission: February 15, 2023 (issue 1) or July 15, 2023 (issue 2) Prospective Publication: June 2023 (issue 1) and December 2023 (issue 2) magazén | International Journal for Digital and Public Humanities is accepting proposals to its 2023 volume, which shall devote two… Read more
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DH Monday: MORE CFP – Renaissance Society of America Annual Conference (San Juan, Puerto Rico / March 9-11, 2023)
Renaissance Society of America Annual Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 9-11, 2023 Additional Call for Papers for the following sessions: 3. “New Perspectives on Italian Art,” Submission Deadline: Monday, August 1, 2022: This session aims to create a space for emerging scholars (recent Ph.D.s or Ph.D. candidates) of Italian art to present their work.… Read more
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DH Monday: Summer School: Transmissions (Rome, September 5-11, 2022)
Summer School “Tran(s)missions: how multimediality shapes interdisciplinary research in the field of Italian and Visual Culture Studies, ” Rome – Università degli Studi di Roma Tre (in collaboration with University College London), Sep 5–11, 2022 Pre-Application Deadline: July 31, 2022 The “digital revolution” forces us both to rethink the correspondences between art and science and… Read more
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DH Monday: CFP – Renaissance Society of America Annual Conference (San Juan, Puerto Rico / March 9-11, 2023)
Renaissance Society of America Annual Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 9-11, 2023 Call for Papers for the following two sessions: 1. “New Technologies and Renaissance Studies,” Submission Deadline: before Sunday, July 31, 2022. 2. “Grappling with Imperialism and Colonialism in the Early Modern Art History Classroom,” Submission Deadline: August 1, 2022: Given the roles… Read more