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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Google launches art and fashion platform We Wear Culture
Google has partnered with 180 institutions, schools and archives around the world for a new online project focusing on the history of fashion. We Wear Culture, which launched on the Google Arts & Culture website and mobile apps looks at “The stories behind what we wear.” The project doesn’t just feature pretty pictures of beautiful… Read more
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Archival slides from the Metropolitan Museum find new life as art
After they were digitized, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s massive library of 35-millimeter slides might have ended up as landfill. Instead they are the materials for an exhibition, Institutional Memory: 35mm Slides from the Met’s Collection, at the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs’s reuse center, Material for the Arts (MFTA). Five artists have transformed the… Read more
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CAA Statement on May 23, 2017 Trump Proposed Budget
“In early May, we recognized that your advocacy matters. Calls, letters, and visits from our members and arts and humanities supporters changed the fate of the NEA, the NEH, and the CPB for the remainder of the 2017 fiscal year. The federal agencies even got a little bump in funding. “With the release of the more… Read more
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Registration Open for CaVraCon 2017, June 12-13
Registration is now open for the California Visual Resources Association Conference (CaVraCon). All CaVraCon events will be held June 12-13 at Wurster Hall at UC Berkeley. We welcome information professionals in archives, commercial enterprises, libraries, museums, and visual resources collections (academic, corporate, private) as well as students and interested members of the public to attend.… Read more
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35,000 additional Magnum Photos images now on Artstor
Magnum Photos has now shared more than 35,000 additional images into Artstor’s Digital Library, bringing the total to approximately 116,000* of the world’s most recognized photographs. Among the highlights are black and white shots of daily life in Europe by Raymond Depardon; Middle Eastern tensions and traditions observed by Abbas; elegant staged portraits from Marilyn… Read more
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Guggenheim offers publications as e-books
Over five years ago we celebrated the Guggenheim’s first exhibition catalogue e-book. Currently, the museum has over 200 selected publications freely available on Internet Archive. The Archive offers many different view and download options for the books, which were published between 1937 – 2006. The project is part of the museum’s commitment as an educational… Read more