Canadian artist Char Davies is internationally recognized for her immersive interactive artworks using the technologies of virtual-reality. Originally a painter, Davies transitioned to digital media in the late-80s when, as a founding director of the 3D software company Softimage, she began exploring three-dimensional computer imaging as a means of moving beyond the picture plane into virtual space.
In 1993, Davies began exploring virtual-reality as an experiential spatiotemporal arena for questioning habitual perceptions about nature and "being", and affirming our embodiedness in the world.
Integrating 3D visual elements and spatially-localized sound with interaction based on breath and balance, her immersive virtual environment Osmose (1995) has been acclaimed as a landmark in new media art. This work was followed by Ephémère (1998), which represents landscape and the interior body as intertwined fluxing spatialities, and incorporates the participant's gaze as an additional means of interaction.
Davies’ installations have been exhibited at museums such as the National Gallery of Canada, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Mexico’s Museum of Monterrey, London's Barbican Art Centre, and the Australian Center for the Moving Image; they have received extensive media coverage in publications ranging from Art in America to New Scientist, as well as scholarly journals and books.
Davies also writes and lectures widely, and in 2005 she completed a Doctorate in philosophy (CAiiA, University of Plymouth, UK). Most recently, Davies’ attention has expanded from "virtual" to "actual" place. Working with boulders, streams, forest and the enveloping horizon—her iconic elements—she has begun a long-term project on 500 acres of land in southern Québec, Canada.