Hi!
I am Ulrike Scholtes (PhD, she/her). I work at the intersection of art, (social) science and body work. I am specialized in body awareness, bodily knowledge, embodied methods and artistic research.
In my research and education, I strive to emancipate bodily knowledge and skills, showing and letting people experience how body awareness can enhance their practices as researcher, artist and/or those practices that are usually not associated with using the body. For me, feeling, using and moving the body is part of any practice or profession and should therefore be attuned to the practices we perform on a daily basis. In and through my work, I foreground that feeling, moving and using the body in any way does not come naturally, but is learned and trained. I teach and write about body awareness, sensitivity and bodily skills and labour and create performative interventions that produce bodily knowledge. I also work on articulating bodily knowledge and sensitivity through writing, drawing and small publications.
Current projects
Gathering Moss
Ongoing
Research on moss as connective tissue and as a "Second Body".
Tussenhui(d)s
Starting Octobre 2025
Artistic research in Banne Buiksloot (Amsterdam North) on mail correspondence as form of engagement and the mail box as a space between public and private.
Recently published:
Scholtes, U. (2024). Het Lichaam als Onderzoeksinstrument. Cultuur en Educatie, 23(68), 128-143.
Scholtes, U. (2023). Finding Words for Feeling Bodies: Exploring Drawing Techniques in Dutch Care Practices. Medical Anthropology, 42(8), 828-844.
Scholtes, U. (2024). Working Words: Words as tools to visualize embodied labour. Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, 17(1), 33-49.