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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Fisk University and the Stieglitz Collection: The final ruling
We’ve had a couple of updates in the last six months, but this week the final decision was announced: The Tennessee Supreme Court denied the application of the Tennessee Attorney General to hear an appeal of the decision of the Court of Appeals to permit Fisk’s Alfred C. Stieglitz Art Collection to be shared with the… Read more
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Museum, facing budget cuts, begins burning works of art
To protest deep cuts in arts funding, Director Antonio Manfredi of the Casoria Contemporary Art Museum in Naples has begun burning works of art from the museum’s permanent collection. Manfredi plans a systematic destruction — three a week — of the museum’s holdings as its “1,000 artworks are headed for destruction anyway because of the… Read more
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Century-old images of estates and gardens now available online
The Library of Congress announced a new set of digital images is now available from over 1,000 hand-colored glass lantern slides by Frances Benjamin Johnston, one of the first professional female photographers to achieve international prominence. The images, originally taken between 1895 to 1935 and used during her popular lectures, depict predominantly American gardens and… Read more
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Live: Damien Hirst (more likely assistants) at work
Two years ago it was Marina Abramović at MoMA. Now you can watch another artist at work: Damien Hirst, who has set up a live feed on his website with two views into his studio. NOTE: The live feed ‘Fact’ painting has been completed. Read more
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When to put a building to bed
There’s an interesting debate in the New York Times about when/if it’s okay to demolish buildings that may have aesthetic or historic significance. The debate was sparked by a controversy over whether or not a government building with numerous structural flaws (at left) in New York state could/should be torn down. Those who argue to… Read more
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Ancient Borderlands conference April 13-14, 2012
The Ancient Borderlands Research Focus Group at UCSB has announced the Third Ancient Borderlands International Graduate Student Conference: Conflict, Consensus, and the Crossing of Boundaries in the Premodern World. The conference is scheduled for Friday, April 13 from 3:00-5:30 pm and Saturday, April 14 from 9:45 am-6:00 pm in the McCune Conference Room, HSSB 6020.… Read more