Jörg Scheller

Jörg Scheller (*1979) studied at the universities of Stuttgart and Heidelberg and at the New Media School in Karlsruhe, where he received his M.A. in Art History, Philosophy and Media Art (2007). He is a doctorate candidate at the graduate school Bild-Körper-Medium in Karlsruhe. His Ph.D. project deals with the life and works of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Up to now, the life and works of Arnold Schwarzenegger have been subjects of psychology, film theory, gender theory and sporadically also philosophy. The aim of my dissertation is to outline that particularly art science and media science provide academic tools for a better understanding of Schwarzenegger’s career. In the pioneering documentary movie Pumping Iron (1977), Schwarzenegger calls himself a sculptor and claims that he shapes his body in a way traditional artists shape clay or rock. He poses as a somatic artwork, not as a sportsman. Bodybuilding shows are now also held in opera houses (Sydney) and museums (Whitney Museum New York), artists like Andy Warhol and authors like Tom Wolfe attend the shows. My hypothesis is that the aesthetic mindset of the 60s and 70s (body art, performance, high-low-interaction, etc.) allowed for Schwarzenegger’s fame and the genesis of bodybuilding as an autonomous aesthetic practice. Schwarzenegger succeeds as a living sculpture, and amalgam of artwork and artist – but also in his films and as a politician will he continue to amalgamate role and actor, politics and personage.