Malcolm Quinn
@malrog.bsky.social
Professor of Cultural and Political History UAL, Honorary Professor Bentham Project UCL. Thinks about anti-aesthetics. Read a chapter of my academic work for free:
https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10096746/1/Bentham-and-the-Arts.pdf
https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10096746/1/Bentham-and-the-Arts.pdf
Henry Hill on Reform vs Tories in @ftweekend.com
January 17, 2026 at 11:58 AM
Henry Hill on Reform vs Tories in @ftweekend.com
I’ve been given a belated Christmas present.
January 15, 2026 at 8:17 PM
I’ve been given a belated Christmas present.
In Holborn. The mean streets of London.
January 15, 2026 at 4:55 PM
In Holborn. The mean streets of London.
With flour from Brixton Windmill.
January 13, 2026 at 9:12 AM
With flour from Brixton Windmill.
Bite-sized war in a bespoke tv package. Suitable for leaders with a short attention span. @ftweekend.com
January 10, 2026 at 4:23 PM
Bite-sized war in a bespoke tv package. Suitable for leaders with a short attention span. @ftweekend.com
That fisherman perspective trick is borrowed from Hogarth:
January 8, 2026 at 8:29 AM
That fisherman perspective trick is borrowed from Hogarth:
It is twenty years since Dany Nobus and I wrote our book. Good to see it cited in here as a key text on knowledge and psychoanalysis.
January 8, 2026 at 7:47 AM
It is twenty years since Dany Nobus and I wrote our book. Good to see it cited in here as a key text on knowledge and psychoanalysis.
This is something I wrote about the origins of state-funded art education in UK in 1837. To do the same thing today, you would have to gather evidence in a select committee and use political economic theory to generate a brand new art pedagogy out of the conditions of capitalism. Maybe we should.
January 6, 2026 at 3:49 PM
This is something I wrote about the origins of state-funded art education in UK in 1837. To do the same thing today, you would have to gather evidence in a select committee and use political economic theory to generate a brand new art pedagogy out of the conditions of capitalism. Maybe we should.
I’m getting Wayne Thiebaud.
January 4, 2026 at 9:31 AM
I’m getting Wayne Thiebaud.
Some people will do anything to avoid inheritance tax.
January 3, 2026 at 8:17 AM
Some people will do anything to avoid inheritance tax.
I’ve been writing about Bentham’s ‘A Picture of the Treasury’, in which he compares officials at the British Treasury to Maillardet’s automaton (c1800), which could draw pictures and write poems. Bentham sees himself as trapped in a clockwork catastrophe that is rewriting his text.
January 3, 2026 at 7:55 AM
I’ve been writing about Bentham’s ‘A Picture of the Treasury’, in which he compares officials at the British Treasury to Maillardet’s automaton (c1800), which could draw pictures and write poems. Bentham sees himself as trapped in a clockwork catastrophe that is rewriting his text.
Apex decadence - pudding and a glass of heavily discounted Bolly from Berry Bros&Rudd.
December 25, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Apex decadence - pudding and a glass of heavily discounted Bolly from Berry Bros&Rudd.
Cool present from our daughter’s boyfriend. If he is trying to get on my good side, it is working.
December 25, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Cool present from our daughter’s boyfriend. If he is trying to get on my good side, it is working.
Family outing to see ‘Into the Woods’.The standing ovation was thoroughly deserved.
December 24, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Family outing to see ‘Into the Woods’.The standing ovation was thoroughly deserved.
At Neal’s Yard Dairy.
December 23, 2025 at 11:34 AM
At Neal’s Yard Dairy.
Watching the sun do its best at Newgrange.
December 21, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Watching the sun do its best at Newgrange.
From our visit to the Caravaggio exhibition in Rome, ‘The Conversion of Saul’ 1600-1601.
December 20, 2025 at 1:38 PM
From our visit to the Caravaggio exhibition in Rome, ‘The Conversion of Saul’ 1600-1601.
Reading this book. So far, the argument is that what is interesting about AI is not intelligence, because there isn’t any, but rather that we now have semiotics on a grand scale. Language is bigger than us, and LLMs are part of it.
December 19, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Reading this book. So far, the argument is that what is interesting about AI is not intelligence, because there isn’t any, but rather that we now have semiotics on a grand scale. Language is bigger than us, and LLMs are part of it.
From the first paragraph of my book ‘Utilitarianism and the Art School in Nineteenth-Century Britain’ (2013)
December 19, 2025 at 8:38 AM
From the first paragraph of my book ‘Utilitarianism and the Art School in Nineteenth-Century Britain’ (2013)