Heroes Not Zombies

Peter Gabriel, one of my all time favourite musicians, has just launched a new project/album, called “I/o”. He’s going to release one track at a time, each one to coincide with a full moon. As he says in his video describing the project, every time we look up at night and see a full moon approaching we’ll know the next track is about to be released. I’ve not known anyone else do that but it sure appeals to me.

The idea of an album being released track by track over a period of time of course is similar to all the long form streaming fiction we are so familiar with in recent times. The habit of binge watching long form fiction has been countered by a growing number of producers making their viewers wait a week at a time to see the next episode, something that only works first time unless you are wonderfully disciplined. (Have you ever done that? Have you ever watched, say 10 episodes just one episode per week once all 10 have been made available?)

But it also reminds me of how novelists like Dickens used to publish their stories in serial form in periodicals.

Here’s the video of Peter Gabriel describing the project and the first track, Panopticom.

The title, Panopticom, is a neologism. He picked up on the Jeremy Bentham idea of a “panopticon”, a prison designed to facilitate maximum surveillance of the prisoners, and turned it around to imagine something that would allow us, the ordinary people, to be able to see what the people with power were doing. He briefly describes his idea of an actual “panopticom” (with an “m” for “com” or communication), which I find both intriguing and inspiring.

I don’t know how we get there, but I’ve long since believed that transparency, total transparency, is the only way to reduce the widespread abuses of power by politicians, corporations and the rich. If the “Panopticom” can be realised, then maybe it will be at least one step towards that goal.

Check it out and see for yourself. I think this is an idea worth developing.