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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Free tools for organizing your research docs
We recently learned of two terrific FREE tools to help scholars at every level organize the research materials spread all over their computers into a 24/7 library. Both allow you to create a “cloud” of personalized resources that you can log in to from anywhere: Zotero plugs into Firefox and lets you ” collect, manage… Read more
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Update: Caravaggio found
The Red Dot posted last December that Italian researchers were on the hunt for the remains of Baroque painter Caravaggio. The Globe and Mail is now reporting success: while scholars can never be completely certain, they now believe they found partial remains of the artist, who likely died from sunstroke while weakened by syphilis. Read more
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“Computers and the death of Art History”
That’s the provocative title of the upcoming CHART (Computers and the History of Art) conference (in London, November 2010). Here’s their rationale for the title – full details of the conference on their website: “In recent decades the traditional practices of Art History have come increasingly under attack. This has led to changes so extreme… Read more
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Recent trends in the art market
The Wall Street Journal recently reported on current trends in the art market. Several dead artists continue to sell at record-breaking prices, while the value of many artists both living and dead dropped for elusive reasons. Art collectors apparently feel confident about Renoir, Monet, Dali, Warhol and Picasso (whose “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” sold… Read more
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Wiki-Art, and The Johnny Cash Project
Neal Gabler has a very interesting essay in the LA Times today about communal culture in art – from collage and Andy Warhol’s Brillo Boxes to music and film sampling, and the fine line between collaboration/sharing and appropriation. He fears the loss and intangibility of authorship, while recognizing the seemingly limitless freedom allowed through new… Read more