Osmose (1995)
John Harrison (custom VR software), Georges Mauro (computer graphics), Dorota Blaszczak (sonic architecture/programming), Rick Bidlack (sound composition/programming), Colin Griffi ths (exhibition manager), Tanya Das Neves (assistant to the artist). Virtual reality environment, head mounted display, real-time motion tracking, software, computers, projection.
In Char Davies' Osmose, a user enters a virtual world by means of a head-mounted display and a motion-tracking vest that monitors the wearer's breathing.
The breathing and body balance of the system's user allows them to navigate the virtual world, which first presents itself as a three-dimensional Cartesian grid that introduces coordinates for orientation.
The user can then explore a forest and other natural environments, including 'Tree', 'Leaf', 'Cloud', 'Pond' and 'Subterranean Earth'. The environments have an element of translucency and use textures that suggest a constant flow of particles.
The virtual world also includes a layer of 'Code' and 'Text', which illustrates the software on which the work is based and quotes from the artist's writings, technology, nature and body. The code and text frame the natural environments in the context of a data space.
