Char Davies

Char Davies was born in 1954 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Originally a painter, Davies became interested in the possibilities of computer graphics and animation. In 1985 joined Softimage, shortly after its founding. She played many roles within the company, sitting on the board of directors (1988-1994) and serving as vice-president of visual research (1988-1994) and director of visual research (1994-1997). After leaving Softimage in the late nineties, Davies has started an active independent artistic career.

«Osmose», 1995
Phaedrus or Blue World

Davies creates a Virtual Reality (VR), These VR environments consists of dozens of distinct world-several archetypical realms. The way these images are view though a head- mounted display. Turning and leaning alters the view and a location on a vertical axis.

Osmose is a three-dimensional Cartesian grid which functions as an orientation space. With the immersant's first breaths, the grid gives way to a clearing. In the centre of the clearing is a tree, within whose leaves it is possible to enter.

'Tree' real-time frame capture'
from Osmose, 1995

In Osmose, breathing is being used in a very specific way, not only for the navigational aspects but also to help people reconnect to the body which puts them in a certain state of mind. Davies wants to bring the viewer into a state of calm. and this feeling is at the center of central to this work and indicative of her commitment to challenging the limits.

Tree Pond,
from Osmose, 1994-95