Char Davies: Osmose (1995) and Ephémère (1998)
Two works by Char Davies offer influential precursors, Osmose (1995) and Ephémère (1998). Both made use of a stereoscopic head-mounted display in order to immerse the interactor in a visual field navigated through "breath" and "balance," as measured by sensors strapped on with a harness. The experience then was much more akin to scuba diving than walking through the space. Even though the ocean floor was only one of the environments in this piece, the navigation evokes traveling through digital information as through moving through water.