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
-
A Guide to Art Photography in Museums
Trying to capture images of works of art in museums is a tricky business, which prompted Robert Baldwin, Associate Professor of Art History at Connecticut College, to develop a Guide to Art Photography in Museums (pdf), which covers equipment, image file type, and other useful tips. The guide can also be found on Professor Baldwin’s website,… Read more
-
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and Google Earth map Land art
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA has teamed up with Google Earth to provide interactive maps of works in the current exhibition Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974 by “pinpointing their original locations to demonstrate the global nature of Land art and its relationship to real places and times.” Users can see both aerial… Read more
-
New use for old slides, Part IV
While there are lovely bags, curtains and lampshades to be made from old slides, here’s a fantastic wearable project instead. The maker, Emily Steel, created the Little Slide Dress (complete with interior lighting) for the Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Design for the Wearable Technology course. via FashionablyGEEK (with a hat tip to Leslie… Read more
-
Hammer Museum: “Made in L.A. 2012” and new hours
The Hammer Museum will have new hours of operation starting Saturday, June 2. The museum will be open 11:00 am – 8:00 pm Tuesdays through Fridays and 11:00 am – 5:00 pm on Saturdays and Sundays (the museum is closed on Mondays). Both admission and parking fees will remain the same. These new hours begin… Read more
-
The beta SAH Archipedia
The Society of Architectural Historians announced the beta version of its Archipedia site is now available. This digital encyclopedia of American architecture offers only a sample of information, but when it officially launches later in the year, it will be published as two sites: the Archipedia of Classic Buildings (100 of each state’s most representative… Read more
-
Now in ARTstor: Major works from Guggenheim’s permanent collection
ARTstor announced an addition of more than 750 images from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation’s permanent collections in New York, Bilbao, Venice, and Berlin. This is the first installment of a projected 7,000 total images from the Guggenheim Foundation, which will include not only works of art but also 5,000 installation views from the 1990s to… Read more