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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Teaching with Open Arts Objects
The Open Arts Archive is “a live and open archive providing free access to a wealth of artistic, cultural and educational resources, including talks, seminars, study days, artists’ podcasts, artist interviews, curators’ talks and exhibitions…. [and] provides an invaluable resource for students, teachers, researchers, artists and the general public.” Open Arts Objects (OAO) is an… Read more
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Funding Opportunity: Two University Assistants, University of Vienna
Vienna, 15.03.2021 – 14.03.2025 Application deadline: Dec 17, 2020 Description: The Department of Art History at the University of Vienna is one of the oldest and biggest centers for research and education in its field. Two “Prae-doc” positions (75%, University Assistant) are available from March 15th 2021 for four years. The positions offer first-hand experience in academia… Read more
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New Web Resource: Mapping Eastern Europe
Mapping Eastern Europe is a platform intended to promote study, teaching, and research about Eastern Europe between the 13th and 17th centuries. Users can access content written by specialists in the form of historical overviews, art historical case studies, short notices about ongoing research projects, and reviews of recent books and exhibitions. This platform aims… Read more
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Visualizing Data from U.S. Redlining Past & Recent History in 200 Cities
Not Even Past: Social Vulnerability and the Legacy of Redlining visually documents formal and informal systemic practices of racial residential segregation in the U.S. during the twentieth century. Not Even Past presents maps for 200 cities, where for each city there are two maps side by side separated by a diagram. The left map shows… Read more
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Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi‹ (CVMA): New Digital Research Tools on Medieval Stained Glass
From the project announcement: The new module ‘Stained Glass in Context‘, created within the ‘Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi‘ (CVMA), is the first to offer an art historical introduction to the history of exemplary churches with important stained glass, including an interactive presentation of the windows. The CVMA plays an exceptional role in medieval research: the… Read more