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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George Eastman House collections online
The George Eastman Museum’s vast collections are now searchable online, including over 250,000 objects from the photography, technology, and George Eastman Legacy collections. Visit often as additional records and images will be added on an ongoing basis, including the Moving Image collection of more than 28,000 titles spanning the entire history of world cinema. via… Read more
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Los Angeles Art Show: January 11-15, 2017
Mark your calendars for the 22nd edition of the LA Art Show: Modern | Contemporary, which will be held January 11-15, 2017 in the West Hall of the LA Convention Center. This ever-evolving art fair will feature innovative galleries, lectures, and artist performances that showcase premier Modern and Contemporary work. Read more
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Artstor adds 32,000 images of contemporary art
Artstor and Larry Qualls have released approximately 32,000 images of contemporary art exhibited in the New York area in the past three decades. This release joins the more than 100,000 images already available in the Larry Qualls Archive, including images of all the major figures equated with contemporary art from the 1980s to the present.… Read more
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Another fantastic film archive
British Pathé was the source for filmed world news, entertainment, and general oddities and information, from the beginning of the 20th century for the next 50 years. Their ‘cinema newsreels’ were shown before the feature in movie theaters in Britain as well as many other parts of the world, and the little rooster logo was… Read more
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Nationalmuseum releases hi-res images on Wikimedia Commons
This month, Sweden’s Nationalmuseum contributed over 3100 high quality digital images of works from their collection into Wikimedia Commons. While the museum’s long-term goal is greater visibility and accessibility to their collection, in the short term it also provides access to artworks not currently on view, since the museum is undergoing renovation and most of… Read more
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Nine Architectural Photography Tutorials to Help You Get the Right Shot
Capturing the perfect architectural photograph can be far more difficult than one might anticipate. In light of this, ArchDaily compiled a list of nine architectural photography tutorials to help you get the right shot every time. Read more