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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The rise of New York’s skyline
Experience the historic rise (and a tragic fall) of the skyline of New York as a time-lapse elevator ride to the observatory atop One World Trade Center. Read more
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Creating interactive timelines
Handy for illustrating both broad eras or shorter time spans, as well as applicable for classroom assignments and conference papers, these web-based tools are great for creating interactive and dynamic timelines: Tiki-Toki: a web app to create interactive multimedia timelines with embedded images, text and even videos (YouTube, Vimeo and AVIs); they also have a… Read more
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Google Earth Pro is now free
Great news from Google – the Pro version of Google Earth is now free! Features in Pro that were not in Google Earth include the ability to compute distances and area with built-in measurement tools, and to print high resolution images. Learn more, and download, here. When installing, use your email address and the key… Read more
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Are we building too many museums?
In an opinion piece posted on the Royal Academy of Arts website, Stella Duffy (writer, theater-maker and and founder/co-director of Fun Palaces) and Kieran Long (Senior Curator of Contemporary Architecture, Design and Digital at the V&A Museum) defend both sides of the question, “Are we building too many museums?” Read both sides and then vote for… Read more
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Who shot Chris Burden?
Artist Chris Burden was good at keeping secrets. For example, it came as a shock to most people that, when he passed away on May 10, he had been battling cancer. Another longer-standing secret was the identity of the participant in Burden’s 1971 performance piece “Shoot,” where a person only identified as Bruce (in the… Read more
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Architectural Software: Which, and how?
Earlier this month, ArchDaily published “Which Architectural Software Should You Be Using?” (originally published on ArchSmarter as “Which architectural software is right for me?”), where author Michael Kilkelly works through factors that could influence your decision to select and learn architectural software and, with the added help of a platform-based flowchart, offers a list of applications… Read more