ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Dan DeGeest & Terran Boylan

SONG: Digging in the Dirt FROM Us

Video info:

Digging in the Dirt from Us (1992) has been with me for more than three decades, beginning with my early adoption and obsession with XPLORA1. Decades later the song returned to me as my marriage collapsed, and now again in this 50:50.dev collaboration that evokes my memories of the original MTV-era video while reimagining the song through the exploratory, remix-oriented ethos of XPLORA1 and the creative vocabulary of evolving generative AI tools.

Naturally, Peter’s award-winning music video became an aesthetic jumping-off point, weaving fragments of stop motion and claymation into our own generative AI workflow and an innovative technique for creating continuous, single-shot tunnel sequences. Part homage, part interpretive remix, the result explores the ways our minds and emotions can run off the rails when experiencing and processing pain and loss.

Simultaneously literal and abstract, present and remembered, this “TunnelVision” journey elicits the experience of being caught in one’s own feedback loops, endlessly replaying painful memories, overthinking, spiraling through disbelief, anger, confusion, longing.

Through its shifting passageways, the piece mirrors the process of healing, moving layer by layer toward a place that feels more open, breathable, and alive.

-DD

Special Thanks
Rick Clifton
Paul Wang
Matthew Gordy
Rick Lozier
Belinda Arge
Britt Prater

Song info:

Digging in the Dirt is a track taken from Peter Gabriel's album Us, released in September 1992.

Words and music by Peter Gabriel. Produced by Daniel Lanois and Peter Gabriel.

Published by Real World Music Ltd. / Sony Music Publishing.

“I’m against capital punishment; it’s a subject I feel very strongly about. I started thinking that maybe the reason I’m interested in this is because of my own murderous feelings. I was looking at the way I’d been behaving – sort of passive-aggressive – looking at the bastard in me that I hadn’t really acknowledged, and as I was writing, I was inter-weaving bits of myself.

It’s very safe for people to put murderous stuff on others. It’s one of the illusions of capital punishment; you think that these monsters carry all the badness and if you wipe them out you can sleep easily at night. But actually, they’re made out of the same stuff that we’re made of. We’re not so far away from behaving the same ways. I think it’s quite dangerous, this projection trait. It’s healthier to own the shitty stuff. In some religions, all the positive sides are acknowledged and none of the negatives are owned. If we’re to move on properly, they need to be owned.”

-pg

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: David Aughenbaugh

SONG: Of These, Hope / Lazarus Raised FROM Passion

Video info

This animation is an infinite zoom experience, designed to have specific effects on the mental state of the viewer. After a few minutes watching, the viewer’s thinking mind is quieted and the viewer settles into a pleasant flow state, characterised by quiet focus and enhanced creativity. The viewer is relaxed but alert with enhanced mental functioning.

I chose tracks without lyrics, so that the thinking parts of the brain are not engaged and are allowed to go quiet. These tracks from Passion - Music for The Last Temptation of Christ feel both purposeful and forward-moving, but also mysterious and a little bit magical–perfect for these visuals! The piece is over five minutes long and I find that when I get to the end I want it to keep going. Maybe I will do a longer version!

Song info:

Of These, Hope and Lazarus Raised are tracks taken from Peter Gabriel's album Passion, released in 1989. The album was the first release on the newly formed Real World Records.

Written by Peter Gabriel. Produced by Peter Gabriel

Published by Real World Music Ltd. / Sony Music Publishing.

‘Scorsese had asked for a new type of score that was neither ancient nor modern, that was not a pastiche but had clear references to the region, traditions and atmospheres, but was in itself a living thing.’

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Steven Askew

SONG: Washing of the Water (live) FROM Secret World Live

Video info:

The live version of Washing Of The Water from the Secret World tour has always been absolutely the definitive version of this song, for me.

The openness of the sound is deep and noble, and offers a profound and perfect hymn-like quality for the emotion of the lyrics.

This video piece features my wife, and was filmed on a remote beach on the west coast of Scotland, in a moment when stillness, reflection and healing were required.

Song info:

Washing of the Water is a track taken from Peter Gabriel's album Secret World Live, released in August 1994.

Words and music by Peter Gabriel. Produced by Peter Gabriel and Peter Walsh.

Published by Real World Music Ltd. / Sony Music Publishing.

“Secret World Live we were mixing to picture, so we had to make everything “look” right as well as sound good. There was not as much scope for enhancements, and if we did replace or repair anything, we had to be very accurate with the sync to picture. Mixing the Secret World Live show on the road for more than a year, in so many different settings, gave me a unique insight in to how best to represent Peter’s live experience in a recording. I had a very clear understanding of the mood and excitement I wanted to portray.” - Peter Walsh