Entry No. 20 — the Raleigh file — filed under: art
Cloud Chamber for the Trees and Sky
Designed by British artist Chris Drury, this turf-roofed stone hut functions as a room-sized camera obscura, projecting a live, upside-down image of the forest canopy and clouds onto its white cement interior.
The story
From the trail, it looks like an ancient stone root cellar or a turf-topped bunker half-buried in the North Carolina pine woods. Commissioned in 2003 for the Ann and Jim Goodnight Museum Park, British environmental artist Chris Drury built this circular hut out of local fieldstone, timber, and sod. You wouldn't guess from the rustic exterior that the whole structure is actually a massive optical device disguised as an earthwork.
Step inside and pull the heavy wooden door completely shut behind you to seal out the sun. High in the timber roof, a tiny aperture acts as a room-sized camera obscura, gathering daylight from above and projecting it onto the curved white cement interior. As your eyes adapt to the darkness, the dark room illuminates with a live, inverted moving picture of the surrounding forest canopy and sky, spreading treetops and drifting clouds directly across the floor beneath your boots.
What it's like
Follow the woodland trails behind the North Carolina Museum of Art until you come upon the stone hut. You'll pull open a heavy timber door and step into near-pitch darkness; click it shut firmly, because even a crack of ambient light destroys the illusion. Give your eyes three to five minutes to adjust to the dim room. Midday on a bright afternoon with high-contrast, fast-moving clouds gives you the sharpest projection on the white cement floor. Visit on a weekday morning if you want to sit in the quiet without someone barging through the door mid-adjustment.
The move: Step inside the heavy wooden door, wait a few minutes in total darkness for your eyes to adjust, and watch the treetops and clouds project across the floor beneath your feet.
- 📍 West Raleigh
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Outdoors
Where: 2110 Blue Ridge Rd, Raleigh, NC 27607
Hours: Added 2026-07-21 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- Yayoi Kusama's "Light of Life" — Head inside the main museum building after Drury's natural camera obscura to contrast it with Kusama's mirrored, kaleidoscopic light chamber.
- Alluvial Decoder — Continue your outdoor environmental art trek with this site-specific flood visualizer along nearby Crabtree Creek.
- Oberlin Cemetery — Trade optical earthworks for quiet local history at this historic 1873 African American burial ground tucked into Midtown Raleigh.
Good to know
How does the image appear on the floor?
It relies entirely on basic camera obscura physics: natural light enters through a small pinhole aperture in the roof, projecting a live, upside-down image of the outdoor canopy onto the smooth white cement interior.
Is there a fee or ticket required to enter?
No, the Cloud Chamber is located in the outdoor NCMA Museum Park, which is free and open to the public daily from dawn to dusk.
What weather conditions offer the best experience?
Bright, sunny days with passing white clouds offer the highest contrast and most dramatic movement across the interior surface.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: ncartmuseum.org · Atlas Obscura · park.ncartmuseum.org · learn.ncartmuseum.org
last checked: 2026-07-21