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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CAA publishes Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts
The College Art Association (CAA) has published the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, a set of principles addressing best practices in the fair use of copyrighted materials based on a consensus of opinion developed through discussions with visual-arts and legal professionals. Initiated by CAA in 2012, it will be… Read more
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Amazing photos of a starling “murmuration”
If you’ve never seen a murmuration of starlings (and probably few of us have) these photos in the LA Times will make you gasp. A murmuration is the mass movement of an entire flock. The photos are like a series of very temporary sculptures. Read more
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Zeno.org: A digital library of images and more
Zeno.org, another source for research and images, is a German language site with a scope similar to Open Library and Project Gutenberg but also includes over 40,000 works of art in sizes suitable for teaching presentations. The site is organized by subject matter and ebooks, or you can search names and keywords for images and… Read more
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Undeveloped film from WWII and the Rescued Film Project
Photographer Levi Bettweiser specializes in recovering, developing and printing “found film.” Last year at an Ohio auction he came across 31 rolls of undeveloped film taken by an unnamed American soldier in WWII. He painstakingly processed as many as he could (some were water damaged) and the results are wonderful documentation of one soldier’s experience.… Read more
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SoCal “Museums Free-For-All” on January 31
Mark your calendars for Saturday, January 31, when Southern California museums will band together for their tenth annual “Museums Free-For-All” Free Admission Day. The event will have over twenty museums—presenting art, cultural heritage, natural history, and science—opening their doors to visitors to explore their permanent collections (note that this offer will not apply to specially… Read more
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Freer and Sackler Galleries to Release Complete Digitized Collection Jan. 1, 2015
On January 1, 2015 The Freer and Sackler Galleries will offer free digital access to their entire collection of over 40,000 works, most of which have never been on view to the public. More than 90 percent of the images will be in high resolution and without copyright restrictions for noncommercial use and this massive… Read more