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 

  • British Museum digital image service

    The British Museum has a free image service that delivers high quality* digital scans of many works of art in their collection. To use this service, which allows you to receive 100 images per month for non-commercial use: Click the Use digital image button on any image page (located beneath the image thumbnail; if this… Read more

  • Annenberg Space for Photography now open

    Red Dot visited the new Annenberg Space for Photography in Century City on the weekend and found it an interesting experience on many levels. The physical space is fresh, and rethinks the way photography can be exhibited and viewed. The current show on eleven Los Angeles-based photographers covers a wide array of content, style, technique,… Read more

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  • Panorama photos from the Jesusita fire

    I just saw these panorama photos from the LA Times – they give the best sense yet of what firefighters had to deal with. And this photo gallery is great too. Okay, no more fire stuff. Read more

  • Satellite photo of Jesusita fire

    This NASA photo very clearly shows the burn scar and its proximity to downtown Santa Barbara. It can be enlarged and downloaded. Read more

  • Kimbell Art Museum acquires Michelangelo painting

    The museum, located in Fort Worth, announced on 13 May that it has purchased what is believed to be not only the earliest painting executed by the artist, but also the first to belong to an American collection. via Kimbell Art Museum website. Read more

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  • A full-figured find

    A six-centimeter ivory figurine of a woman, found in a cave in southwestern Germany and dubbed the Venus of Hohle Fels, is dated to 35,000 BCE and considered “one of the oldest known examples of figurative art” in the world. Article via New York Times. Or, if you want a less dignified headline, try Huffington… Read more