The Red Dot takes its name from the small sticker that once marked slides in a physical archive, flagging them as worth a second look. We’re keeping that spirit alive here.
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.
The Red Dot © 2025 is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
-
LA’s Modernist homes vs. McMansions
Andrew Romano’s Daily Beast essay Trading Modernist for McMansion addresses the issue that a “certain kind of modernist property—namely, a lesser-known house situated on a prime lot in an expensive neighborhood—is still at risk” in Los Angeles neighborhoods like Beverly Hills and Bel Air. Read more
-
How do you browse through 1.6 million images?
With the beginning of the academic year fast approaching, ARTstor offers this refresher on navigating through their ever-growing library of images. This post covers browsing the four categories of Geography, Classification (i.e. media), Collection, and Featured Groups. Another helpful browsing tool is the Associated Images icon () at the bottom of some thumbnails: clicking on this… Read more
-
Art Rules
The Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, has launched a new online forum called Art Rules. Here’s how it works: The website asks visitors to answer the question: “What is art?” Their answers appear on the website for other visitors to comment on, and conversations are started around the submitted ‘rules’. Visitors can ‘Agree’ or ‘Disagree’… Read more
-
Open access film periodicals
Whether you’re doing research on the history of the film industry, or you just want to spend a few hours in a bygone era of film, the Media History Project’s Digital Library is your site. Included are fan magazines, cinema history periodicals, technical journals, and more. They recently made available extensive runs of Film… Read more
-
Egyptian museum antiquites looted and damaged
Reports have been surfacing that the Malawi National Museum in Minya, Egypt (roughly 190 miles SW of Cairo) has been severely looted during the last week’s demonstrations and unrest. Most portable objects were stolen while heavier objects were burned or vandalized. also via Guardian, LA Times, Daily News Egypt and Unesco Read more
-
Spanish fresco’s “amateur restoration,” one year later
One year ago this month we reported about an enthusiastic parishioner from the Sanctuary of Mercy Church, in Borja, Spain, who “helped” restore a deteriorating church fresco depicting Christ as Ecce Homo. As it turned out, the restoration was so popular it became a tourist attraction, raising over $66,000 for the church and inspiring a… Read more