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 verdict is in: The DIA is safe!
BREAKING NEWS: The federal judge presiding over Detroit’s bankruptcy hearing has ruled in favor of the “Grand Bargain” — a deal to accept $816 million over 20 years from nonprofit foundations, the State of Michigan and DIA donors in exchange for reduced pension cuts and not selling off some (or most) of Detroit Institute of… Read more
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CA Arts License Plates now make great gifts
A while back we posted a great way to support the California Arts Council: getting a license plate featuring Coastline, a sunset-and-palm-tree motif designed by artist Wayne Thieboud. The most recent good news is that this “special interest” plate, the first specialty plate in the U.S. designed solely to benefit the arts, can now be given… Read more
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New Urbanism Film Festival, LA: Nov. 6-9, 2014
The second annual New Urbanism Film Festival will be November 6-9 at the ACME Comedy Theatre, 135 N. La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles. The festival was created last year “to move the conversation about urban planning out of the text book and beyond the council chambers and into the movie theater.” You can find more… Read more
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Los Angeles Art Show: January 14-18, 2015
It’s that time of year again to mark your calendars for the Annual Los Angeles Art Show! This year’s show will be held January 14-28, 2015 at the LA Convention Center, South Hall J and K. This mark’s the Art Show’s 20th Anniversary and they’ve both added dates and scaled down the experience to two… Read more
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Places Journal launches new website
Places Journal, dedicated to public scholarship on architecture, landscape and urbanism, has a new responsive website. Browsing the Explore Places tab yields sections grouped by columnists or keywords such as Reputations, California, Ecology, Sustainability, Critical Practice and many others. h/t SAH Read more
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Sistine Chapel rented for corporate event
Yes, you read that right. The Sistine Chapel can be rented out for select corporate charity events as a part of Pope Francis’ “Art for Charity” initiative. The first takers: Porsche. On Saturday, October 18, 2014, forty of the car maker’s enthusiasts paid $5,900 per head to be among the first group of people treated… Read more