CAMERA OBSCURA
A walk-in camera that turns the surrounding world into a live projection.
The Camera Obscura is one of the earliest forms of photography. Long before cameras existed, artists and scientists discovered that a dark room with a single hole could project a live, upside-down image of the outside world onto its walls. This simple optical phenomenon was used by painters including Johannes Vermeer and Leonardo da Vinci and laid the foundation for photography and cinema, and continues to evoke a sense of wonder centuries later.
For Down The Rabbit Hole Festival, we reinterpreted this historic principle as an immersive, walk-in installation. Visitors enter a mirrored cube where the surrounding festival landscape is projected live onto the interior walls. By sliding between different lenses, they can change the focal point of the projection, revealing the landscape in unexpected ways. The installation transforms a familiar environment into a quiet, dreamlike experience, inviting visitors to slow down, observe and rediscover their surrounding.
The installation was designed and built in collaboration with Adriaan de Groot and Thomas Steigenga, and premiered at Down The Rabbit Hole Festival (NL) in 2026. The Camera Obscura is now available for new locations and collaborations. The existing installation can travel to new contexts, or a new version can be developed to respond to a specific site, exhibition or programme.
