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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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
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Upcoming Artstor Digital Library Feature Changes
Artstor has announced they will make changes to current features in the Digital Library with a new release this summer that includes an improved platform with a redesigned interface and streamlined features. They will retire a number of personal uploads such as notes, citations, and saved searches, so visit here to learn how to save… Read more
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An in-depth way to explore the Garden of Earthly Delights
It’s been available for awhile, but we recently discovered this amazing interactive tool and wanted to promote it. The Prado Museum developed an “audio-visual journey” of Heironymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, which can be explored through a variety of means. You can watch the full documentary, take a tour, or explore on your… Read more
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Bard Graduate Center exhibition installation images now in Artstor
Artstor announced that the Bard Graduate Center has released 2,500 images of exhibitions installed in their Gallery. The Bard Graduate Center is an academic unit of Bard College that offers advanced degrees in decorative arts, design history, and material culture and the Gallery is an intimate environment for viewing loan exhibitions curated by the Center’s… Read more