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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Tate Guide to Modern Art Terms app available
The Tate Gallery in Britain has an app for their Guide to Modern Art Terms. The app, designed for both iPhone and iPad, contains over 300 art terms defining and describing art movements, styles, schools, techniques and theory. Search by keyword or browse by different categories or through the image gallery. This is the first… Read more
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Mike Kelley (1954-2012)
Contemporary artist Mike Kelley was found dead in his South Pasadena home on Wednesday. Obituaries via CalArts (where he received his MFA) and LA Times (with slideshow). Read more
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Friday Fun: The Stereogranimator
The New York Public Library has developed one way to digitally view stereographs: The Stereogranimator. Users can choose one of the over 40,000 stereographs from the Library’s collection, create either an anaglyph or animated GIF by combining the two images into “one,” and share it in the Gallery. However, as a colleague put it: when… Read more
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Eastman Kodak files for bankruptcy
The streamrolling trend from analogue to digital photography has finally forced Eastman Kodak to file for bankruptcy protection. They have only turned a profit one year out of the last seven, and are now borrowing cash and scrambling to sell digital imaging patents to keep afloat. Eastman Kodak was founded in 1880 – the camera… Read more
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Guggenheim Museum offers new e-books and -essays
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has released e-books of selected museum publications, including the exhibition catalogue of the current show Maurizio Cattelan: All. According to the museum, the Guggenheim is “the first museum to release an exhibition catalogue e-book.” Technically, these digital editions follow traditional book designs as well as allow searching, bookmarking pages, enlarging… Read more
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Neutra’s Kronish House update: Beverly Hills’ new historic preservation ordinance approved
This past summer we mentioned that Richard Neutra’s Kronish House could be set for demolition — a move fought by Neutra’s son Dion among others. This week the Beverly Hills City Council voted not only to set new rules for demolishing or altering structures at least 45 years old and designed by a “city-recognized architect,”… Read more