The Sixth Sense: Augmenting Sensory Perception through Critical Design

Abstract

This paper explores the connection established between people and their surrounding environment as depicted in the popular science fiction concept "Cerebro" from Marvel's The X-Men series. This is done through the development of The Sixth Sense, a wearable device that augments the sensory perception of human beings by manifesting the intangible concept of poverty in one's environment into a physical experience. The concept is designed to incite awareness and reflection in the wearer through dimensions of social justice-oriented and adversarial design. The Sixth Sense, situated within critical design, proposes that social injustices should be felt by all those who inhabit a space until the systems of oppression operating within that space are subverted.