MIRL (Material / Image Research Lab)

The Red Dot

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 

  • Mona Lisa is in the building

    Mona Lisa paid us a visit this morning, accompanied by a glamourous redhead.  We tried to get ML to laugh, but only got that mysterious smile in response. Way to give 110% with the costumes, ladies! Read more

  • Nov. 2 lecture: “Velazquez in the Basement: Connoisseurship and the Politics of Art History”

    Dr. John Marciari, Curator of Italian and Spanish Painting at the San Diego Museum of Art, will deliver a lecture at UCSB entitled “Velazquez in the Basement: Connoisseurship and the Politics of Art History.” Co-sponsored by the departments of the History of Art and Architecture, Art, and Spanish and Portuguese, the lecture is part of… Read more

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  • The latest on Fisk University and the Stieglitz Collection

    As we’ve reported before (here and here), Fisk University is pushing to sell a 50% share of their Stieglitz Collection to an Arkansas museum as a way to raise operating funds. The Tennessean recently reported that an anonymous donor has come forward with a pledge to give the university a needed flow of money now… Read more

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  • Photography raffle to benefit Louisiana

    Santa Barbara-based photographer Nell Campbell has organized a fundraiser to benefit The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana (read more about CRCL here).  She has donated the photograph pictured below, which she took in 2004 on Little Chenier Road in SW Louisiana.  It is 8″x19″, framed in maple wood, with a white rag mat and UV… Read more

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  • Online database for art looted by Nazis

    More than 20,000 works of art were plundered in Germany-occupied France and Belgium from 1940 to 1944. These works, meticulously documented during the war by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), can searched and researched via a new online database. The database combines records from the U.S. National Archives in College Park (MD), the German Bundesarchiv… Read more

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  • You, too, can be a patron of the arts

    Following the model of other micro loan ventures, Kickstarter.com is a site where artists  propose  projects and everyone can contribute to their funding.   Project descriptions are posted on the site, outlining the goals, medium, budget and time frame.   Anyone can make a financial contribution, for any amount.   According to their website more than half the… Read more

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