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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Social media crack-down: how Instagram ‘protects’ us from art
The Art Newspaper’s article focuses on how the art world’s use of online platforms has increased – and so has the frustration around its draconian censorship of creative images. Read more
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DH Monday: Job Opportunity – Assistant Professorship, Digital Visual Studies
University of Zürich Application deadline: Jul 15, 2020 The goal of the professorship is to advance visual research in the digital humanities. The professorship is part of the Max-Planck-funded cooperation project Digital Visual Studies hosted by the University of Zurich and supported by the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History. The non-tenure-track… Read more
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DH Monday: Funding Opportunity – Ph.D. Fellowships in Digital Visual Studies
The Max Planck Society (MPG) and the University of Zurich (UZH) invite applications for interdisciplinary predoctoral fellowships in the field of Digital Visual Studies (DVS) for a duration of 2+1 years. The program is part of a five-year cross-institutional Digital Humanities research project funded by the MPG, supported by the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck… Read more
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Field Notes: Pandemic Teaching
Places Journal has published a six-part series of essays addressing and exploring the shift to online teaching. From their summary: The massive move to online teaching has raised acute challenges and general anxieties. Some are practical and technical; others are more conceptual, political, and even philosophical, involving the importance of campus community, the role of… Read more
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Take the Survey for The SAH Data Project: Analyzing Architectural History in Higher Education
The SAH Data Project is gathering quantitative and qualitative information about the status of architectural history as a field in higher education in the United States. The study is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and scheduled to be completed in December 2020. A full report of the findings will be available on the… Read more
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DH Monday: How digital humanities can help in a pandemic
Celia Luterbacher, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne has published, “How digital humanities can help in a pandemic,” an article discussing how employing digital humanities helps engage the community and reveal how people understand data. h/t IHC Read more