A Questionnaire on Materialisms

Recent philosophical tendencies of “Actor-Network Theory,” “Object-Oriented Ontology,” and “Speculative Realism” have profoundly challenged the centrality of subjectivity in the humanities, and many artists and curators, particularly in the UK, Germany, and the United States, appear deeply influenced by this shift from epistemology to ontology. October editors asked artists, historians, and philosophers invested in these projects—from Graham Harman and Alexander R. Galloway to Armen Avanessian and Patricia Falguières to Ed Atkins and Amie Siegel—to explore what the rewards and risks of assigning agency to objects may be, and how, or if, such new materialisms can be productive for making and thinking about art today

Between the Eyes Painting. Gene Beery: Para-Visual Painter of Word Signs

Gene Beery LIFE! is the first monograph dedicated to this prolific American artist (b. 1937) who has interrogated with humour and irony the moment of aesthetic experience. What are the stakes between a viewer and an artwork? What does the surface of the canvas promise to whoever looks at it? Beery positions himself with pictures to be read, whose phrases announce the arrival, the possibility of such an experience. Behind the apparent nonchalance and sarcastic distance of his practice emerges a profound reflection on the existence of art and the role of the artist. Beery is best known for his black-on-white paintings, replicating signs, notices and announcements. The book published by Mousse and Fri Art Kunsthalle Fribourg offers an in-depth investigation of his work. It assembles more than 65 artworks and three essays, by Kenneth Goldsmith, Jo Melvin and Balthazar Lovay, as well as an interview with Gene Beery by Gregor Quack

Increased prevalence of diabetes mellitus and the metabolic syndrome in patients with primary aldosteronism of the German Conn's Registry

DesignAbnormalities in glucose homeostasis have been described in patients with primary aldosteronism (PA) but most studies show inconsistent results. Therefore, we aimed to compare the prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in newly diagnosed PA patients to a matched control cohort of the background population.MethodsIn total, 305 PA patients of the prospective German Conn's Registry were compared to the population-based Study of Health In Pomerania (SHIP1;n=2454). A 1:1 match regarding sex, age, and BMI resulted in 269 matched pairs regarding type 2 diabetes and 183 matched pairs regarding MetS. Of the total, 153 PA patients underwent oral glucose tolerance testing (OGTT) at diagnosis and 38 PA patients were reevaluated at follow-up.ResultsType 2 diabetes and MetS were significantly more frequent in PA patients than in the control population (17.2% vs 10.4%,P=0.03; 56.8% vs 44.8%,P=0.02 respectively). Also, HbA1c levels were higher in PA patients than in controls (P&lt;0.01). Of the total, 35.3% of non-diabetic PA patients showed an abnormal OGTT (¼ newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes and ¾ impaired glucose tolerance). PA patients with an abnormal OGTT at baseline presented with significantly improved 2 h OGTT glucose (P=0.01) at follow-up. We detected a negative correlation between 2 h OGTT glucose levels and serum potassium (P&lt;0.01).ConclusionsType 2 diabetes and MetS are more prevalent in patients with PA than in controls matched for sex, age, BMI, and blood pressure. This may explain in part the increased cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality in PA patients.</jats:sec