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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Open Content at the Getty
The Getty has launched its Open Content Program with the aim of sharing its digital resources as widely and freely as possible. They are starting with material from the museum but will be adding content from the Research Institute and Conservation Institutes over time. These images can be used “for any purpose without first seeking… Read more
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And this is why you don’t touch things in museums
An American tourist allegedly broke off one of the fingers of a 600 year old sculpture in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence. It is reported that he was trying to “measure it”, and that he is a surgeon. The museum director pointed out that it was a plaster replacement, not an original digit,… Read more
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UC campuses move toward open access publishing
University of California faculty have voted to make research articles freely available to the public through eScholarship, the digital publishing repository hosted by California Digital Library. Click here for the full Academic Senate announcement and click here for more information on UC open access policy and history. via The Chronicle of Higher Education Read more
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New app for up-to-date listings of LA exhibitions
What’s on Los Angeles is a new mobile app created by LA artists Jody Zellen and Brian C. Moss to help users keep up with current exhibitions at the area’s galleries and other art institutions. The app offers browsing by name or location (bonus: each venue’s listing includes a helpful map link) and highlights upcoming… Read more
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The Interaction of Albers and iPad
Yale University Press announced a new iPad app for Josef Albers’ influential 1963 book Interaction of Color. The app (free to download, but the full digital edition is $9.99) has the full text as well as a variety of digital interactive enhancements, including a new color palette tool which allows users to engage in the… Read more
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UCSB’s own Corpse Flower ready for her close-up
Chanel is nearly out! Chanel is a Titan Arum, better known as the Corpse Flower due to the rotting meat stench which attracts pollinating insects. These plants originate in Sumatra, Indonesia, and can take up to 10 years to bloom. You can see her progress on this page where the photo is refreshed every five… Read more