“Many studies of the body deconstruct embodied difference or call on specific types of non-conforming bodies to act subversively. My Writing challenges all bodies' ability to create and disrupt bodily Social norms. Consequently, it extends and crosses the limits of academic, Artistic and Political classifications of embodiment."

Jules Sturm


Jules Sturm

Bodies We Fail  - Productive Embodiments of Imperfection.

Transcript Verlag
ISBN: 978-3-8394-2609-8
Published: 2013

Purchase Bodies We Fail

This book explores the productive effects of bodily 'failure' in the sphere of visuality. The aim is to reflect on the human body's constant exposure to visual constraints and distortions, which are incorporated so strongly in everyday images of our bodies that they become invisible, while yet representative of cultural norms. By analyzing artistic literary and visual representations of imperfect, disabled, aging, queer, and monstrous bodies, this project exposes the »handicaps« of normative vision and opens up new ways of recognizing a multitude of corporeal existences and practices outside the norm.

Extract (PDF)


ARTICLES

“Trailing Objects in/for Art Education”, In The Future of Cultural Analysis. A Critical Inquiry. Murat Aydemir, Aylin Kuryel, Noa Roei (Eds.), Amsterdam University Press. forthcoming in 2023.

“Tender Attunements”, with Angelo Custódio. In Towards New Schools. Epistemic Shifts in Art and Design Education. Forthcoming, October 2023, https://extraintra.nl/article/towards-new-schools/essay-6-tender-attunements/

A Living Artwork! Leben(dig)e Kunst an der Schnittstelle von Konservation und Publikation. Self-published, performative events & print work. Supported by American National Science Fund, Charité Berlin, Zurich University of the Arts (mit Sonja Bäumel, Janina Krepart, Birgit Nemec). Continuous publication (2023-2024).

“Eine Annäherung zweier (Inter)Disziplinen: (Zu-)Hörpraktiken als Beispiel kulturanalytisch-kunstpädagogischer Beziehungsarbeit”. In: Jens Badura, Irene Vögeli, Patrick Müller (Eds.). Gespanntes Begreifen: Zum Eigensinn transdisziplinärer Denk- und Verfahrensweisen im Kontext der Künste, diaphanesforthcoming in 2023, with Heinrich Lüber.

"Underbelly Resonances", In Choreographic Unrest, ed. Joerg Franzbecker, Suza Husse, Yvonne Wilhelm. Archive Books, forthcoming in 2023, with Angelo Custódio.Forschen im Erproben – Re-enactment eines

“Gesten der Verkörperung.” 2022. In: Tanzhaus NRW (Hrsg.) Gegenwart Choreografieren. Alexander Verlag, Berlin.

“Vulnerable Looking.” 2021. In: Isis Freitas Vale Germano et al. (Eds.), Power Tools: Artistic Strategies for Social Change. ARTeZ: Arnhem, NL.

“Forschen im Erproben – Re-enactment eines Vortragsskripts im Modus gemeinsamen Schreibens”
In: Zukunft. Anregungen für die Forschung in Art Education, Schweizerische Fachgesellschaft für
Kunstpädaogigk (Eds. Anna Schürch, Bernadett Settele), mit Janina Krepart & Heinrich Lüber.

“Literacy Embodied” In: Daniel Neugebauer (Ed.) Counter_Readings of the Body, Bd.4. Das Neue Alphabet, HKW Berlin.

"Transformations: Interviews by Jules Sturm" Robert Walser Sculpture (Thomas Hirschhorn), Katalog. Kathleen Bühler (Ed.), Forthcoming February 2020.

"Weighing Posthumanism: Fatness and Contested Humanity"                                                                Social Inclusion 4.4, with Sofia Apostolidou, 2016

"The Look of the Image", The Contemporary Visual Studies Reader. Eds. J. Elkins,  K. McGuire,  et al. Now York and London: Routlegde, 2013

"Seeing Throug an Aesthetics of Vulnerability", in Disturbing Bodies. Frankfurter   Kulturwissenschaftliche Beiträge Bd. 5. Eds. S. Mieszkowski & Vogt-William. Berlin: Trafo, 2008

"Reading the Monstrous Body: Transgender Corporeality in Djuna Barnes's Nightwood", in: Critical Issues of Sex and Sexuality. Eds. A. Cervantes. Carson & N. Rumens. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007


Current (Artistic) Research Projects 

  • “A Questioning Situation: Künstlerische Lehre an der Schnittstelle von Schule und Hochschule”

    With Janina Krepart, Heinrich Lüber, Forschung in Art Education, ZHdK (2022-2024)

  • “Tender Attunements: Experiments in Embodied Theory Making”

    With Angelo Custodio, (2022-ongoing)

  • “A Living Artwork! Leben(dig)e Kunst an der Schnittstelle von Konservation und Publikation” (supported by American National Science Foundation, Charité Berlin, Zurich University of the Arts)

    With Sonja Bäumel, Janina Krepart, Birgit Nemec (2020-2024)

  • “Co-respond: bodies, voices, spaces in art education – Reading Group”. A collaborative project between teachers, students and alumni*ae from ZHdK and Piet Zwart Institute (2022-2023)

  • “Academized Artists” (funded by Swiss National Science Fund, SNF)

    With Kris Decker, Institute for Contemporary Art Research, ZHdK 2020-2023

  • “Underbelly Resonances: Experimentation in Voice and Writing”

    With Angelo Custodio, (2019-ongoing)