On a personal note and getting a little closer to the man, Peter Gabriel is your virtual host throughout your exploration of his secret CD-ROM bound world. As well as providing a commentary, he is on hand to offer advice and encouragement, plus a few of his home videos for amusement. For instance, there's the chance to take a virtual tour around the Real World studios in Wiltshire - his self-financed state of the art recording facility.
Peter Gabriel's work with human rights is also covered. There's material from Amnesty International, the independent, world-wide pressure group campaigning impartially for the release of all prisoners jailed or maltreated because of their political or religious beliefs. The Witness programme, which was initiated by Peter Gabriel to provide human rights activists around the world with video cameras and other means of mass communication, is also featured heavily. It should be said that some of the material in this section is particularly distressing and parental discretion is advised.
- Peter GabrielI have been delighted with the reaction to Xplora. The reaction and all the awards have been very pleasant feedback. We made a decision three years ago to go into multimedia and discovered, coincidentally, that Steve Nelson had decided to do a simple demo for a CD-ROM based on my music. We had a lot of meetings deciding on the concept, content and design. My major contribution to the project was the areas of concept and the visual design. I had strong ideas about the use of natural materials, earth, stone, grass, sky, water etc. that would give it a very fresh original appearance. The CD-ROM was definitely a result of teamwork but I took my involvement as serious as I do with my other work. I believe one of the reasons the disc has sold better than other music related titles that it was created with the artist and not for the artist. There were many ideas that were restricted by the limitations of the medium. I very much wanted to involve people in the creative process and had originally hoped to give people the capacity to remix all the songs.
