Sensory Fiction explores a fictional future for wearable technologies that sense and manipulate our physiological states. In this future, people learn to suppress their emotional responses, as they are being recorded and analyzed by employers, advertisers, and insurance companies. In order to regain an emotional state, people turn to technology to induce a response through mental and physiological stimulation.
The Sensory Fiction vest includes actuators that manifest physiological sensations like an increased heartbeat, a chill down the spine, or a tightening chest. The vest is connected to a book — as the reader explores the story, the vest responds to the content of the book, allowing the reader to experience the emotional signals of the protagonist.
Sensory Fiction was inspired by the short story 'The Girl Who Was Plugged in' by James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Sheldon).
In collaboration with Felix Heibeck and Julie Legault