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
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Newly expanded American galleries open at the Huntington
The Virginia Steele Scott Galleries, a part of The Huntington Art Collections in San Marino, have undergone an extensive expansion and on 30 May reopened to the public. The new space houses a growing American art collection, which will be displayed in an area more than twice its previous size. Read more
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Additions to the VRC image database, part 2
Material that we have added to the image database recently includes: Victorian painting (90 images) Nineteenth and twentieth-century photography (250 images) Moche, Inca and Tiahuanaco (Andean Peru) ceramics, textiles, maps and archaeological material (200 images) Twentieth-century contextual material (news photographs, political documents, etc.) (300 images) If you would like a database account and/or orientation please… Read more
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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