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Background: How do the unique standpoints through which we inhabit our bodies and move through life cause barriers to connecting and relating with one another? Which of our bodily, sensory, and emotional experiences elude words—and how might live arts and technologies offer an entry point into those unspoken worlds?

Objective: This participatory arts-based research explored the potential of technologies to convey embodied experiences of persons with Parkinson’s and circus performers—two distinct groups that share a heightened awareness of the body in communication.

Methods: This phenomenological inquiry brought together people living with Parkinson’s, caregivers, circus artists, technologists and neuroscientists in a series of exploratory workshops and co-design sessions. Through movement exercises, improvisation, guiding questions and discussion, participants experimented with and prototyped technologies including biosensors, motion capture, wearable technologies and virtual reality. Emergent themes were traced and iterated on using Miro mindmap, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants regarding the research-creation process.

Results: We co-created an interactive performance that offers a multi-sensory immersion into perspectives from Parkinson’s, circus, and their encounter. Anchored in the metaphor of a house, each room brings to life stories and reflections from our research process through performing bodies, physical objects, audio clips, written quotes, and technology prototypes. Participant interviews highlighted how participatory research-creation offers a space for empathetic encounter and community-building, and how moments of transformation towards self and others emerged from joint inquiry, play, and a shared co-creative goal.