The Red Dot

The Red Dot takes its name from the small sticker that once marked slides in a physical archive, flagging them as worth a second look. We’re keeping that spirit alive here.

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.

The Red Dot © 2025 is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 

  • Santa Barbara historic architecture news

    Now’s your chance to own a bit of California architectural history right here in Santa Barbara.  A 1919 house by Wallace Neff, designed for his mother and thought to be his first house, is on the market on the lower Riviera for $1.48 million (left). If you’re an admirer of George Washington Smith you’re in… Read more

  • 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

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  • Art — as a reality series

    We reported earlier of Bravo TV’s call for participants for a new, art-themed reality show. It now seems the show has come to fruition. Work of Art: The Next Great Artist will premiere Wednesday, June 9 with 14 aspiring artists competing for the grand prize of a solo show at the Brooklyn Museum and $100,000. Read more

  • WorldImages offers thousands of images

    WorldImages database, hosted by San José State University, provides access to almost 80,000 images that are global in coverage and include all areas of visual imagery. The database is accessible anywhere and can be searched by specific fields or browsed by subject “portfolios”.  Images are continually added and organized and all images may be freely… Read more

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  • Travel the world via QTVR panoramas

    Panoramas.dk, created by Danish photographer Hans Nyberg, is a site dedicated to offering a variety of interactive QTVR panoramas of cities, sites, or events. You can browse by the year a panorama was created or (farther down the page) by the location it depicts. To download the latest QuickTime player (free), click here. Additional travel… Read more

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  • Louise Bourgeois dead at 98

    Louise Bourgeois has died in New York at the fabulous age of 98.   Global recognition came late to her – despite an enormous output she wasn’t widely known until the 1982 retrospective at NY MOMA.  Through her diverse and prolific body of work she was known for working through emotional and physical pain, including the… Read more