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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Rodolfo Lanciani Digital Archive: Images of Rome
Archaeologist, professor of topography, and secretary of the Archaeological Commission Rodolfo Lanciani (1845–1929) was a pioneer in the systematic, modern study of the city of Rome. His personal collection included his notes and manuscripts as well as a large collection of historic and contemporary images of the city. The physical Lanciani Archive housed in Rome… Read more
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Picturing Places from the British Museum
Picturing Places explores the role and history of topographical views, maps and texts through over 500 examples from the British Library’s collections and beyond, with fresh research in over 100 articles and films from an academic conference hosted by the British Library and Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. The site highlights a… Read more
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Open-source platform maps artwork provenance
Launched by Boston University professor Jodi Cranston, Mapping Paintings is an open-source, searchable platform for compiling provenance data for individual artworks (not just paintings, despite its name), from owners to past locations to details of sales or transactions. It allows you to select artworks of interest and visualize their records across time and space, as… Read more
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Google launches art and fashion platform We Wear Culture
Google has partnered with 180 institutions, schools and archives around the world for a new online project focusing on the history of fashion. We Wear Culture, which launched on the Google Arts & Culture website and mobile apps looks at “The stories behind what we wear.” The project doesn’t just feature pretty pictures of beautiful… Read more
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Archival slides from the Metropolitan Museum find new life as art
After they were digitized, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s massive library of 35-millimeter slides might have ended up as landfill. Instead they are the materials for an exhibition, Institutional Memory: 35mm Slides from the Met’s Collection, at the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs’s reuse center, Material for the Arts (MFTA). Five artists have transformed the… Read more
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CAA Statement on May 23, 2017 Trump Proposed Budget
“In early May, we recognized that your advocacy matters. Calls, letters, and visits from our members and arts and humanities supporters changed the fate of the NEA, the NEH, and the CPB for the remainder of the 2017 fiscal year. The federal agencies even got a little bump in funding. “With the release of the more… Read more