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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BBC hosts Your Paintings website
The BBC, in partnership with the Public Catalogue Foundation and public museums and collections, has launched the website Your Paintings, which “aims to show the entire UK national collection of oil paintings, the stories behind the paintings, and where to see them for real.” The site is searchable by artist last name and subject matter.… Read more
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Firefox 5 users with no access to ARTstor, updated
UPDATE (28 June): After searching, saving and downloading tests in ARTstor, it appears that they have fixed the compatibility issue with Firefox 5. If you are a PC user with Firefox as your default browser, you may be prompted (sometimes rather urgently) to upgrade to Firefox 5. Unfortunately, at this time ARTstor is not compatible… Read more
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Update on Picasso trove, part 2: Charges are filed
We reported in December here and here that a dispute had developed over a collection of works by Pablo Picasso that had been discovered with the artist’s former electrician. The latest news is that seventy-one-year-old Pierre Le Guennec and his wife have been formally charged with stashing the 271 “stolen” Picasso artworks at their home.… Read more
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New Geotagging application: Zeitag
A terrific new iPhone/iPad app called Zeitag marries Geotagging, Google Maps and Toronto City Archives to show sites and buildings as they have looked like in the past. The creator has included archival info in the captions, and images from several eras of given sites when available. This app is the first in… Read more
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British Library launches new book app
For those of you with an iPad, check out the British Library‘s new 19th Century Historical Collection app with access to classic novels, works of philosophy, history and science in the library’s collection. Currently the free app features over a thousand titles, but by summer it will have more than 60,000 works, all in the… Read more
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Kansas: There’s no place like home…without the arts
Kansas Republican Gov. Sam Brownback eliminated all state funded arts programs this past weekend when he signed the state’s budget. In numbers, Kansas “nonprofit arts and culture organizations support 4,612 full-time equivalent jobs. Together they generate $95.1 million in household income to local residents and deliver $15.6 million in local and state government revenue.” What… Read more