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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Bill Viola + USC Game Innovation Lab = The Night Journey
Video artist Bill Viola has teamed up with the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Interactive Media Division‘s Game Innovation Lab) to create an experimental video “game,” but not one with high-speed chases nor increasingly effective weaponry. The Night Journey “[is] a game that rewards you for slowing down and for introspection,” said Viola, who has… Read more
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New Sistine Chapel QTVR, courtesy of Villanova
For the last two years, students and faculty from Villanova University have had rare clearance to photograph a new state-of-the-art Virtual Reality Tour of the Sistine Chapel. The “tour”, a beautiful QTVR panorama with a classical music accompaniment, is on the Vatican website. Read more
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Getty offers free access to the BHA
The Getty Research Institute announced today that the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) is available free of charge on the Getty website. The database also includes the International Bibliography of Art (IBA), which covers the years 2008 and part of 2009. Next phase: the Répertoire de la litterature de l’art (RILA), one of… Read more
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360 degrees and 26 Gigapixels of Paris
“Paris 26 Gigapixels” is a project that has stitched together 2346 single photos of Paris, resulting in a very high resolution (354159 x 75570 pixels!) 360 degree panorama view of the French capital. You can pan manually, or allow it to play on a beautiful slow pan (accompanied by contagious Parisian music); you can zoom… Read more
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Audit of Russian museums follows allegations of widespread in-house theft
The Hermitage and other museums in Russia have apparently been frequent victims of theft by curators and other employees. President Putin ordered a nation-wide audit of museum inventories when he was still in office. The results of the audit will be made public soon but it has been confirmed that at least 87,000 pieces are… Read more
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New use for old slides, Part II
Who wouldn’t want a curtain of slides? This would be a lot of work, but maybe for the retirement years, or summer break, or a project for the kids? The results sure are beautiful. Read more