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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Pure fun – Panoramas from Paris
This is breathtaking – a 360 degree nighttime view of Paris from the Eiffel Tower in Quicktime. It’s just one of the beautiful panoramas by Eric Rougier – you can see all of them at his website “Panoramas from Paris”, which includes instructions to maximize viewing of these QTVR gems. Rougier is one of the… Read more
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Multi-media teaching site: SmartHistory
Smarthistory is “a free multi-media web-book designed as a dynamic enhancement (or even substitute) for the traditional art history textbook.” It was started in 2005 by Drs. Beth Harris and Steven Zucker, who found themselves dissatisfied with traditional survey texts. They created a series of audio guides to accompany works at the Metropolitan Museum of… Read more
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Prison Photography blog
Just came across this blog with an unusual focus: Prison Photography (The Practice of Photography in Sites of Incarceration). It contains some striking historic and current photographs, of and about prisons, and interesting commentary and posts. Read more
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SFMOMA’s “Artscope” – new visual browsing tool
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has introduced Artscope, a new way to browse 3,500-plus works from their collection. It employs a magnifying- glass feature that allows you to zoom in on a work from a large mosaic, or grid, of images. Or you can type in or select terms to focus your search. … Read more
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Image collections still available through Luna Insight
Just a reminder that the California Digital Library still supports Luna Insight, the image hosting and search tool that was tested by the UC campuses a few years ago. There are several terrific collections which are not available through ARTstor or other means at this time, for example: The National Palace Museum of Taipei (over… Read more
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Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University closes
The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University has posted on its website that its last curated exhibition closed this month and the university will “repurpose” the space in late June. Also on the chopping block: some of its permanent collection. As you can imagine, the closure of this institution (with the possible sale of its… Read more