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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DH Monday: CFP – DAHJ Issue #9: The Art Museum in the New Hybridity
Call for Papers – DAHJ Issue #9, “The Art Museum in the New Hybridity,” explores the convergence of analog and digital media, focusing on the art museum in the new hybridity. Articles published on a rolling basis. Possible topics to be addressed: New assumptions of hybridity (in provision, visitation, and operation) on which curatorship can… Read more
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DH Monday: Reflecting On a Year of Selected Datasets
The Selected Datasets Collection in the Digital Content Management Section at the Library of Congress was publicly launched June 2020 as part of the Library’s ongoing efforts to support emerging data-driven styles of research. Since then, their initial offering of twenty datasets has grown to nearly 200 unique items, and they’ve continued to refine the… Read more
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DH Monday: Conference – The Art Museum in the Digital Age (online / Jan 17-21, 2022)
Online (via Zoom): Belvedere Research Center, Jan 17–21, 2022 Registration Deadline: Jan 16, 2022 The Belvedere Research Center is continuing its conference series on the digital transformation of art museums with its fourth event on the topic. During the COVID-19-lockdowns, the digital presence of museums was no longer merely one possible extension of exhibition spaces,… Read more
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Can AI Truly Give Us a Glimpse of Lost Masterpieces?
Recent projects used machine learning to resurrect paintings by Klimt and Rembrandt. They raise questions about what computers can understand about art. In 1945, fire claimed three of Gustav Klimt’s most controversial paintings. Commissioned in 1894 for the University of Vienna, “the Faculty Paintings”—as they became known—were unlike any of the Austrian symbolist’s previous work.… Read more
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DH Monday: Conference CFP – DH Unbound 2022 (online / May 17-19, 2022)
Call for Papers – DH Unbound 2022 in English, Spanish, or French. Submit your proposal by January 15, 2022. Reviving a collaboration that began with the Joint CSDH/SCHN and ACH Conference in 2015, DH Unbound 2022 (May 17-19, 2022) facilitates connections between ACH, CSDH/SCHN, and other organizations sharing our commitment to creating virtual and hybrid… Read more
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New Online Resource: Vasari Diagram – Open Access Web Interface to Reveal Wikipedia Networks of Old Masters
Just launched: The web interface “Vasari Diagram” – an open access tool for data visualization, designed to make accessible and easy to study the networks and semantic connections of old masters in Wikipedia. Painters are not only present in Wikipedia by their own pages but also by numerous other pages, referring to them. Who mentions… Read more