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 price of art in perspective
A Francis Bacon triptych (above – portraits of Lucien Freud) sold yesterday at auction for $142.4 million setting the record for art auction sales (it was estimated at $85 million). The previous record was set last year for Edvard Munch’s The Scream, which went for $120 million. You can watch a video of the Bacon… Read more
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Largest trove of Nazi-stolen art found in Munich apartment
In a story over 70 years in the making, over 1,500 works of art — some known to have been confiscated by the Nazis and in total now worth about $1.3 billion — have been found in the apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt, the 80-year-old son of a well-known Nazi-era art dealer. What has compounded the… Read more
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LAX, a contemporary art space
In an effort to expand its public art program, LAX has installed Influx: Art at LAX, the “first-ever public art festival” of eleven new temporary art installations scattered throughout the airport. Some spaces are viewable only to ticketed passengers while others are open to the public. In all, the project contributes to “nearly doubling its… Read more
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New ARTstor image group download feature
Individual ARTstor image downloads have become a nuisance due to the zip filing and extra steps. But they’ve now made it possible to download a whole image group as a zip file, which eliminates a lot of those steps. There’s a quick video here that explains how to do it. Have a look at the… Read more
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Los Angeles Art Show: January 16-19, 2014
The dates for the 19th Annual Los Angeles Art Show have been announced: Thursday, January 16 through Sunday, January 19, 2014. The Art Show will once again be at the Los Angeles Convention Center, South Hall J and K and offer its four distinct “fairs-within-a-fair” for Modern & Contemporary, Historic & Traditional, Vintage Posters, and… Read more
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Winner named in Solar Decathalon
The annual Solar Decathalon has just concluded and the winning team is Team Austria – a group of students from the Vienna University of Technology. Their design (LISI – Living Inspired by Sustainability Innovation) competed with 18 other entrants in the 10 day event, held this year in Irvine, CA. The competition is sponsored by… Read more