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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Undeveloped film from WWII and the Rescued Film Project
Photographer Levi Bettweiser specializes in recovering, developing and printing “found film.” Last year at an Ohio auction he came across 31 rolls of undeveloped film taken by an unnamed American soldier in WWII. He painstakingly processed as many as he could (some were water damaged) and the results are wonderful documentation of one soldier’s experience.… Read more
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SoCal “Museums Free-For-All” on January 31
Mark your calendars for Saturday, January 31, when Southern California museums will band together for their tenth annual “Museums Free-For-All” Free Admission Day. The event will have over twenty museums—presenting art, cultural heritage, natural history, and science—opening their doors to visitors to explore their permanent collections (note that this offer will not apply to specially… Read more
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Freer and Sackler Galleries to Release Complete Digitized Collection Jan. 1, 2015
On January 1, 2015 The Freer and Sackler Galleries will offer free digital access to their entire collection of over 40,000 works, most of which have never been on view to the public. More than 90 percent of the images will be in high resolution and without copyright restrictions for noncommercial use and this massive… Read more
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Stolen LA paintings recovered
Nine paintings stolen from a private collection in Encino in 2008 were recovered by the LAPD this week. They were valued at over $10 million, and included paintings by Emil Nolde, Marc Chagall, Diego Rivera, as well as Arshile Gorky’s Cubist Still Life, at left. Three other paintings stolen at the same time are still… Read more
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College Art Association advocates for Fair Use of images in education
The College Art Association’s Advocacy blog posted news items relating to their continuing advocacy for image fair use in educational settings: CAA signed on a Petition to the US Copyright Office for Proposed Exemption Under 17 U.S.C. 1201 to the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) for the use of audiovisual media by college and university… Read more
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Comments sought for proposed UC Policy on Open Access draft
The Provosts Task Force on Open Access is looking for comments on the Proposed New Draft UC Policy on Open Access: Additional Information and Frequently Asked Questions. The proposed new policy extends open access rights and responsibilities to all non-Senate members of the UC community who are authors of scholarly articles, non-Senate faculty, other academic… Read more