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Dream Terminal
A payphone to the collective unconscious.
An interactive memory experience where visitors discover hidden objects, uncover secret codes, and place calls into a shared archive of human experience. Created by Texas Immersive Institute and permanently installed at Nebula in Seattle, Washington, Dream Terminal transforms a forgotten communication device into a portal for memory, reflection, and connection.
Launched as part of Nebula's Cabinet of Dreams exhibition, Dream Terminal invites visitors to answer a ringing phone and uncover stories hidden within ordinary objects.
What Is Dream Terminal?
Dream Terminal is a location-based immersive storytelling installation centered around what Nebula affectionately calls a Liminal Phonebooth, a vintage payphone transformed into a portal for memory, reflection, and connection.
Visitors receive a call from a mysterious voice named Mia and are invited to explore a Cabinet of Dreams filled with curious artifacts. Each object contains a hidden word or number waiting to be discovered.
Dialing the discovered code unlocks a memory.
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Some memories are joyful.
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Some are bittersweet.
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Some feel strangely familiar.
Together they form a living archive of human experience preserved within the Dream Terminal.
FROM CLASSROOM TO INSTALLATION
Dream Terminal began as an exploration within Texas Immersive Institute's Experimental Storytelling course taught by Professor Rohitash Rao.
Students developed initial concepts exploring how a payphone could function as an interactive storytelling platform and how physical objects might serve as gateways to narrative.
The final installation was subsequently developed, written, fabricated, produced, and installed through a collaboration between Texas Immersive Institute and Ripple Productions for permanent exhibition at Nebula in Seattle.
What began as a classroom challenge evolved into a fully realized public installation.
Project Team
Leadership/Creative Director & Producer
Erin Reilly
Experience Design/
Fabrication & Technical Production
Shane Reilly
Faculty Partner
Rohitash Rao
Audio Engineering & Final Sound Mix
Jackson Alexander
Voice Cast
MIA - Khanh Nguyen
Featured Voices
Valeria Olmos
Craig Allen
Courtney Howlege (Seage)
Cecily Sky
Danielle Giroux
Catherine Brockette
Evan Mosher
Mary Poffenroth
Sean Brockette
Shari Rhone
Ocean Reilly
Karen Schwalbe Jones
Jennie Pyles
Lucia McKenna
Áine McKenna
Erin Reilly
Shane Reilly
Partners
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