The Dial

Meet The Creator 

Peter Flaherty, a director and interactive artist whose work has shown in more than 100 international venues, including theaters, galleries and museums, will be at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts on Oct. 27. His interactive piece, “The Dial,” will be on display at the Carson Center from Oct. 27-Dec. 1.

In addition to giving workshops to emerging media arts students, Flaherty will give a public lecture at IGNITE on Friday, Oct. 27 at 12:30 p.m. in the Carson Center. The event is free and open to the public. “I’m excited to be able to bring ‘The Dial’ to the Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts and to engage with such an advanced group of student creators, the faculty and the local audience,” Flaherty said. “The goal for this project was to make an exciting, accessible project that gives audiences an opportunity to engage with rhizomatic, interactive storytelling in an intuitive way. I want them to have a surprising, fun and thought-provoking ride."

“The Dial,” which originally premiered at Sundance New Frontier in 2019, is a new form of storytelling with an interactive narrative combining augmented reality and projection mapping. Told from shifting perspectives, including the neighbors, the police and the omniscient house that sits at its center, the mystery about a formerly wealthy American family begins with a late-night car crash. The viewer controls time with their body in the rich, visual tale, unraveling what happened that fateful night. Move clockwise, and time passes normally. Move counterclockwise, and time rewinds. To see a video trailer for “The Dial,” visit https://go.unl.edu/thedial.

“We are so excited to have director and interactive artist Peter Flaherty join us at the Carson Center and bring his interactive narrative ‘The Dial’ to share with our community,” said Assistant Professor of Practice in Emerging Media Arts Anna Henson. “Peter’s work is exemplary of the kind of multidisciplinary, boundary-pushing artwork that makes meaningful use of emerging technologies that we teach here at the Carson Center. He works across cinema, interactive narrative, live performance, XR and installation—all areas that resonate with the classes I teach here and the work I do professionally as well.”