Information
Char Davies >
»Éphémère«, 1998 - 1998
Co-Workers & Funding:
supported by ATR Media Integration and Communications Research Lab, Kyoto Co-Worker: Emilio López-Galiachohttp://www.immersence.com/
Technology
Hardware
PC computer (sound), sound synthesizers and processors; stereoscopic head-mounted display (HMD) with 3D localized sound; breath and balance tracking interface vest; motion-capture devices; data projector, projection screen and shadow-silhouette screenInstallation Requirements / Space
During public installations of Ephémère, immersion takes place in a private chamber adjacent to a large darkened space where visitors can witness the immersive performances as they take place in real time: both aurally, as sound is generated by the immersants behaviour within the work; and visually, as imagery generated from the immersants point-of-view is projected in real time onto a large-scale horizontal screen. Simultaneously, the shadow-silhouette of the immersant is cast through a translucent vertical screen, emphasizing the relationship between bodily presence and the immersive experience. Software
Initial development 1997-1998: Softimage® 3|D modeling, animation and development environment and custom-written VR software; Silicon Graphics Onyx2 Infinite Reality visualization supercomputer. (Reengineered in 2002 to run graphics entirely on a PC.)
Descriptions & Essays
Ephémère is iconography evolved through Davies' long-standing practice as a painter, and, as in Osmose, is grounded in 'nature' as metaphor: archetypal elements of root, rock, and stream etc. recur throughout. In Ephémère however, this iconographic repertoire is extended to include body organs, blood vessels and bones, suggesting a symbolic correspondence between the chthonic presences of the interior body and the subterranean earth.
While Osmose consisted of nearly a dozen realms situated around a central clearing, Ephémère is structured vertically into three levels: landscape, earth, and interior body. The body functions as the metaphoric substratum under the fecund earth and the lush bloomings and witherings of the land.
(Char Davies)
Literature
Paul, Christiane. Digital Art. World of Art Series, New York: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 2008.
Davies, Char. »Virtual Space.« In Space: In Science, Art and Society, edited by Francois Penz and Gregory Radick and Robert Howell, 69-104. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Davies, Char. »Landscape, Earth, Body, and Time in the Immersive Virtual Environments
Osmose and Ephémère.« In Women, Art, and Technology, edited by Judy Malloy, 322-337. Cambridge, London: MIT Press, 2003.
Grau, Oliver. Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.
Brew, Kathy. »Through the Looking Glass.« In Women, Art and Technology, edited by Judy Malloy. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2003.
Deepwell, Katy. »Reverie, Osmose and Ephémère: Dr. Carol Gigliotti interviews Char
Davies.« n.paradoxa, international feminist art journal 9 (2002): 64-73.
Baler, Pablo. »The Doors of Expression: The Work of Art in the Age of Quantum Processing
Power.« Sculpture 21, no. 4 (May 2002): 118-120.
Lamm, Bettina. »Explorative Space: Spatial Expression and Experience in Gardens and
in VR Works.« Virtual Space: Spatiality in Virtual Inhabited 3D Worlds (2002): 215-237.
Davies, Char. »As If.« Forbes ASAP Big Issue IV: The Great Convergence (Octobre 1999): 161.
Crighton, Gary. »The Real and the Virtual: Karl O´Donoghue Interviews Char Davies.« New Media Notes: Art and Technology in Ireland , no. 2 (March 1999).
Rajah, Niranjan. »The Representation Of A New Cosmology: Immersive Virtual Reality
and the Integration of Epistemologies.« In Invencao: thinking the Next Millenium, edited by . Sao Paolo, Brazil: ITAU Cultural, CAiiA, 1999.
Wertheim, Margaret. »Out of This World.« New Scientist 161, no. 2172 (February 1999): 38-41.
Fisher, Jennifer. »Char Davies.« Parachute 94 (April-June 1999).
Davies, Char. »Ephémère: Landscape, Earth, Body, and Time in Immersive Virtual Space.« In Reframing Consciousness, edited by Roy Ascott, 196-201. Portland: Exeter, 1998.
Tuer, Dot. »The Second Nature of Simulation: Mirroring the Organic in the Virtual
World of Char Davies's Ephémère.« In Char Davies: Ephémère, edited by National Gallery of Canada. Ottawa, ON, Canada: 1998.
Gagnon, Jean. »Dionysus and RGlobal: Immersion in Char Davies´s Environments.« In Char Davies: Ephémère, exhibition catalogue, edited by . Ottawa, CAN: 1998.
McDonagh, Patrick. »Char Davies´ Ephémère.« .
King, Charles. »Char Davies and Ephémère.« Silicon Graphics Online (October 1998).
Exhibitions & Events