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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Discussing the Divine Comedy with Dante
The digital image of Discussing the Divine Comedy with Dante (o/c, 2006) by Chinese artists Dai Dudu, Li Tiezi, and Zhang An, comes with more than dozens of “influential people” from world history. It is also interactive, as the figures (and some of the objects and creatures) have all been tagged — roll the cursor over… Read more
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Update on Picasso trove, part 3: The verdict
The Red Dot has been following this story (the initial story, the thickening plot, and the law suit charges) about the electrician who claims Pablo Picasso gave him 271 works of art (lithographs, portraits, a watercolor and sketches created 1900-1932) as payment for work he did for the artist before he died in 1973. Picasso’s… Read more
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Google Art Project expands its Street Art database
Google announced this week that they’ve doubled the number of images in the Street Art section of the Google Art Project. This means over 10,000 high-res images contributed from 85 art organizations from 34 countries. The database is browsable by collection, artist, works of art, or user galleries, but you can also listen to audio… Read more
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Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 25 years later
In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, a pair of thieves disguised as Boston police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and roamed the Museum’s galleries, stealing thirteen works of art. To revisit this unfortunate anniversary, the Gardner Museum has teamed up with the Google Art Project to create Isabella Stewart Gardner… Read more
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When prints are performance: A panoramic funeral fit for a duke
To commemorate the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo, the National Portrait Gallery in London is offering a viewing of The Funeral Procession of Arthur, Duke of Wellington, by Henry Alken and George Augustus Sala, 1853. This magnificent panorama, measuring 20.6 meters (67 feet), will be displayed in its entirety for the first time as… Read more
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Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon at UCSB Arts Library
Planned to coincide with International Women’s Day, there will be a Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon 2:30 – 6:00 pm on Sunday, March 8, in Seminar Room 2406 on the 2nd Floor of the Arts Library on the UCSB campus. UCSB is just one of over 70 venues participating this weekend and everyone is welcome — no… Read more