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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Happy Anniversary, World Wide Web!
Last summer we celebrated the first web image (and a fine one it was). Now we offer our congrats to the 20th anniversary of the World Wide Web — with a facsimile of the first page that was launched. Click here for more information about the site and its restoration. via LA Times Read more
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New moods of van Gogh revealed?
In preparation for a new exhibition of paintings by van Gogh and his contemporaries, Vincent van Gogh at Work , new color analyses of hundreds of his paintings, drawings, and notebooks have revealed that he may have been more methodical and less “mad” than previously thought. In fact the director of the Van Gogh museum… Read more
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“Cities” the theme for 2013 ARTstor Travel Awards
Each year ARTstor sponsors travel awards that provide $1,500 in funds for recipients to visit and photograph a site. All UCSB instructors, students, and librarians are eligible, as UCSB is an ARTstor-subscribing institution. Read the application rules here – deadline for entries is May 17. Good luck! Read more
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UPDATE: ARTstor images now delivered via zip files
Last month we reported that ARTstor was working to eliminate the need for Java to download single images from the Digital Library. This went into effect yesterday. This change has advantages (no longer the need for seemingly-endless Java updates) and disadvantages (an extra step with your downloads and knowing how to unzip the file). Visit… Read more
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The “art” of reproduction
For those of you who use web searches extensively for your lectures or presentations, check out the post “The Art Of Reproduction” on the blog Visual Hint — the color of data: “Type “Danae Klimt” into your favorite search engine, and you conjure up a high-resolution image of Gustav Klimt’s Danaë: tan limbs, a shower… Read more
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ARTstor downloading change pending
ARTstor announced today that it will be eliminating the need for Java for image downloading, effective “in the near future”. Instead, individual image downloads will come packaged in a zip file with the HTML text file. The full announcement is here. We will post an update on exactly when this will take effect, and provide… Read more