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: Act As If You Are a Curator: An AI-Generated Exhibition
Reviewed by Erin Dickey in Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art 10, no. 1 (Spring 2024), https://doi.org/10.24926/24716839.18990. Curated by: ChatGPT, with support from Julia McHugh, Julianne Miao, Mark Olson, and Marshall N. Price. Irma Lopez, Alveena Nadim, Maddie Rubin and David Sardá provided research support. Exhibition schedule: Nasher Museum of Art,… Read more
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DH Monday: Copyright Office Releases Part 1 of Artificial Intelligence Report, Recommends Federal Digital Replica Law
NewsNet 1048 , July 31, 2024 Today, the U.S. Copyright Office is releasing Part 1 of its Report on the legal and policy issues related to copyright and artificial intelligence (AI), addressing the topic of digital replicas. This Part of the Report responds to the proliferation of videos, images, or audio recordings that have been digitally… Read more
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New Art Historical Digital Resource: “The Gallery Guide Guide”
This new publication and resource by the Yale University Art Gallery, The Gallery Guide Guide, documents the core values as well as the operational nuts and bolts of the Yale University Art Gallery’s renowned Gallery Guide Program. Authored by former co-leaders of the program Sydney Skelton Simon and Molleen Theodore, the Gallery Guide Guide is… Read more
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DH Monday: CFP – Media, Technology, and Virtuality: Before the Modern Era
Paper proposals for the session Media, Technology, and Virtuality: Before the Modern Era during the International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 8-10, 2025/Kalamazoo & hybrid)Submission Deadline: September 1, 2024 The human experience has drastically evolved to that of a virtual existence. Virtual platforms have become indispensable media that reconstruct human relationships, conferences, and even methods… Read more
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New Art Historical Digital Resource: Fototeca Unione
The Photographic Archive of the American Academy in Rome is pleased to announce the release of a new collection on its Digital Humanities Center: The Fototeca Unione Collection Thanks to a five-year grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, it was possible to process the entire collection of the Fototeca Unione: 29,127 images have been cataloged… Read more
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New Art Historical Digital Resource: RKD Studies: Frans Hals and his workshop
The latest RKD Study, written by Prof. Dr. Claus Grimm, comprises a monograph on the life, work and reception of Frans Hals, and a comprehensive catalogue raisonné of the artist’s oeuvre. After the three monographic chapters have been published in November 2023, now also the complete catalogue raisonné has been made available online. You can… Read more