Annotation

Landscape Patterns in Elmbridge, Surrey, United Kingdom, 29.7 x 21 cms – Coloured pencil, pastel and ink on paper.

An alpaca comes from Film Socialisme, “DE QUELQUE CHOSE” refers to Éloge de l’amour, and the title praises the same-titled film. The background is a colonnade at Barbican Centre in London. The initial idea is based on my nightmare, where I was being chased by an alpaca in a brutalist dystopia.

Adieu au Language, 29.7 x 21 cms – Coloured pencils and ink on paper

This is another illustration from A Walk Through L, in particular, from the first chapter reflecting some basics of philosophy of language. In some sense, this drawing is an homage to Jean-Luc Godard:

but also symbolises the concept of logical pluralism, where the variety of all possible logics forms a sort of conceptual landscape. At the same time, I had been trying to achieve the effect of raw feelings and expressions.
The essay itself is available at:
bsky.app/profile/hype...

Multiplicity, 29.7 x 21 cms – Pastel and pencil on paper

Again, a picture from the recent essay A Walk Through L. This is an endeavour to make a self-portrait in a fashion mixing expressionism and pop-art. The name ‘Multiplicity’ refers to the concept of multiplicity from Badiou’s Being and Event,

I haven’t participated in conferences for a while, I still miss that atmosphere of mathematical events.

Haven’t participated in conferences for a while

The original essay for those who might be interested in a broader context:

bsky.app/profile/hype...

Hope @bsky.art will enjoy this piece.

...and I visualised this metaphor by putting category-theoretic diagram in an urban landscape. As a basis, I took the corner of Rue Milton in the 9th Arrondissement in Paris. Whilst drawing this picture, I had been trying to achieve an effect in the fashion of Magritte, but by means of ink graphics.

Architecture of Knowledge in the 9th Arrondissement, 21 x 29.7 cms – Pencil and Ink on paper

This is a picture from A Walk Through L. The picture reflects the idea of how category theory allows for the structuring of formalised knowledge. Category theory suggests some knowledge architecture, and...

The essay itself
bsky.app/profile/hype...

I suppose the picture was subconsciously inspired by Mondrian and Kandinsky. The title was initially a placeholder: Hammersmith is a district in West London close to my neighbourhood, and it was merely a name off the top of my head. Later, I realised that Hammersmith looks nice as the final title.

Hammersmith, 29.7 x 21 cms – Pastel on paper

Yet another illustration from A Walk Through L. This one is part of the essay reflecting the philosophical basis of constructive mathematics. I just followed my associations whilst reading Michael Dummett’s Elements of Intuitionism.

We seem to be rushing towards blood on the streets to satisfy a baying mob being whipped up by some of the most coldly cynical people around. This is calculated chum to the sharks.

Ozzy Osbourne watching himself back YouTube video by Ozzy Shorts

Me reading most of my previous works in 2025

youtube.com/shorts/TF-z_...

Looks curious, thanks! I based the diagrams from this paper

ncatlab.org/nlab/files/M...

The background is based on functorial boxes and string diagrams, the graphic framework for so-called symmetric monoidal lax functors and for comonads over monoidal categories in particular.

I coined such a term to praise @jeancocteau.bsky.social and his Orphic trilogy: Cocteau has three films (Blood of a Poet, Orpheus, Testament of Orpheus), whereas Cocteau categories have three comonads. The idea is also inspired by van Dyck’s Triple Portrait of Charles I.

A Cocteau category is a symmetric closed monoidal category equipped with three comonads, and they generalise quite a few concepts from algebraic geometry and commutative algebra in a natural way. In A Walk Through L, I discuss Cocteau categories as a framework for modelling knowing how.

A portrait of Jean Cocteau in three positions on the background of string diagrams and functorial boxes, 29.7 x 21 cms – Pencil and Ink on paper

This picture is from A Walk Through L and it illustrates Cocteau categories, one of the central concepts introduced in my recent preprint.

Limits of language, 29.7 x 21 cms – Pencil and ink on paper

This is also part of the same essay. The title refers to Wittgenstein’s. The limits are given by the commutative diagram from Theorem 6.5 from my preprint. This is a Magritte-style rendition of category theory as the language of ontology.

Champ/Contre-champ, 29.7 x 21 cms – Pastel, pencil and ink on paper.

This picture is part of A Walk Through L. I came along with this idea soon after rewatching Last Year in Marienbad. The title of the book refers to Ross Street’s Quantum Groups.

Rest in Peace Ozzy.

📸 Ross Halfin

The personification of today's anti-intellectualism

Israeli public figures call for ‘crippling sanctions’ on Israel over Gaza starvation Thirty-one high-profile Israelis accuse Tel Aviv of ‘brutal campaign’ and demand permanent ceasefire in letter

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

The essay also has a number of pictures of mine to equip the philosophical reflection that I suggest with a visual dimension.

The essay poses the problem of what knowledge representation might look like as a theoretical discipline with self-contained foundations, but with roots in philosophical ontology and epistemology as well as metamathematics and category theory.

A Walk Through L Operationalising Knowing How with Category Theory and Linear Logic

In this essay, I aim to reflect on the results from my recent preprint, "Term Assignment and Categorical Models for Intuitionistic Linear Logic with Subexponentials," in terms of a broader context, not just as a mathematical result.
subexponentials.substack.com/p/a-walk-thr...