The Sixth Sense: Augmenting Sensory Perception through Critical Design

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.