What is Body Code all about? 
Body Code is an ambitious performance project by Vulcana Circus that will premier in Brisbane at the Kingson Butter Factory in November 2025. This project is a collaboration between Vulcana, artists with lived experience of disability and AI researchers at Queensland University of Tecnology. The project aims to highlight the potentials and risks of emerging AI technologies and how they can interact with the lives of people living with disability. It will bring together a diverse group of disabled artists and support them to be able to collaborate across artforms and communication differences. It is a project designed with accessibilty at the forefront, and embedded at every stage of the creation process with Auslan interpeters, audio describers and support workers present during developments and rehearsals. 

Why does it matter? 

On average artists with a disability:

• Earn on average 42% less than their counterparts​ (1)
• Experience higher levels of unemployment – 1/3 of artists with disability are unemployed compared to 1/4 of artists without disability) (1)
• Experience numerous barriers within the arts that result in only 9% of professional artists identifying as disabled, despite 18% of Australians identifying as people with disability (2)

At Vulcana we are passionate about bringing diverse stories to the stage. We want to make sure that artists of all kinds have the opportunity to share their own unique perspectives. People living with disability face countless barriers to participation in everyday life -- help us to knock those barriers down and bring this group of incredible artists to centre stage.  

How can you help? 
Every dollar donated helps bring the project to fruition and thanks to Creative Australia every dollar donated will be matched - this means your donation will effectively be doubled! If you can't donate right now please consider sharing this page - help us extend our reach and build a community of Body Code supporters. 

These donations will be directly fed into the project and are what makes performances like this possible at all.   
$25 Assists costume design
$50 Contribution to an hour of Auslan interpretation during rehearsals 
$200 Construction of an adaptive circus apparatus 
$400 Audio description for 1 performance 
 
Partners and supporters: 
Research Partner: Queensland University of Technology 
Community and Access Partners: The Brotherhood of the Wordless, VantagePoint Audio Description  
Artistic Director/Facilitators: Celia White and Jo Dunbar 
Cast and creatives: Lauren Watson, Julie Lyons, Chaos Beth, Courtney McKee 
and Allycia Staples 
Venue Partner: Kingston Butter Factory, Logan City Council 

References:

(1) Throsby D & Petetskaya K 2017, Making Art Work: An Economic Study of Professional Artists in Australia, Australia Council for the Arts.
(2) Research overview of arts and disability in Australia | Office for the Arts