Jay Schankman

Written By Christopher Imlay

Autonom@uz  (/ôˈtänəməs/) is a collaborative synthesis of human imagination and AI-generated vision. It’s a give-and-take dynamic, where the AI prompts and the human dreams, provoking the unseen into reality.

Jay Schankman is the human behind this partnership.

’I’m a content creator and multimedia developer. I am most often found creating just for the sake of creating art. I am an artist free and unbound, on a mission to prompt, provoke and promote.’

 

Find jay on youtube, online and bandcamp.
Videos by Jay Schankman
Live and Let Live (Bright-Side Mix)
Live and Let Live (Bright-Side Mix)

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Jay Schankman

SONG: Live and Let Live (Bright-Side Mix) FROM i/o

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Jay Schankman

SONG: Live and Let Live (Bright-Side Mix) FROM i/o

Video info:

Live And Let Live is the last song of Peter Gabriel’s grammy winning album “i/o”, and it is the longest song on this album. On it, Peter invokes messages of peace, love and forgiveness.

It was an interesting proposition; to pick a song and make this video for Peter. I loved the message and the challenge, and with that, I just felt grounded by the message. There was no intention going in, but as I began working on it, the pieces fell together naturally.

The video (and my interpretation of the song) moves through three lyrical passages. First, there is personal understanding and forgiveness, then repairing or healing our interpersonal relationships, and finally coming together in love, with the references taking many forms, ultimately as we stop our endless wars and “lay the burden down, lay the weapons down”. The Elders speak of having the courage to “be brave enough to listen, to 'live and let live'.”

I love this song, the project and the opportunity that Peter Gabriel and Real World Records provides for the world community of independent artists. In gratitude, thank you and thanks to you for watching it!                                                

Song info:

Live and Let Live is a track taken from Peter Gabriel's album i/o, released on 1 December 2023. This is the Bright-Side Mix, by Mark 'Spike' Stent.

Words and music by Peter Gabriel. Produced by Peter Gabriel and Richard Russell.

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

“Music can be like a box of mood pills that we can use to treat ourselves and a lot of the work of the Reverberation project is focused on that sort of idea. When someone suggested that forgiveness might be a topic to write about, at first, I thought, ‘that's not interesting to me,’ but then I remembered two things. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was the chair of The Elders and a real mentor for me, led the Truth and Reconciliation Committee in South Africa and that really allowed people to expose, report and maybe feel again some of the horrors of the apartheid era. I remember he always said that listening made a huge difference, just making sure people felt heard and recognized. Then, sometimes, it created a space for forgiveness.

There's also a description that Nelson Mandela gave when he was released from jail after 27 years in prison and found himself about to become president of South Africa, standing next to some of the people who'd been responsible for keeping him in jail all that time. He said he felt some of the old fear and hatred swelling up inside him but when he thought hard about it, he realized that he needed to find a way to work with these people, to build what he called his rainbow coalition. He needed to feel their humanity and ultimately to find a way to forgive them. He was quite sure that if he couldn't forgive them and find a way to work with them, that he would remain their prisoner for the rest of his days.

Now, I know if we look at what's happening in the Middle East now or in Ukraine, all sorts of places around the world where there's still violence and brutality, to walk around with a bunch of flowers, preaching forgiveness seems trite and pathetic, maybe. But in the long run, I think people have to find a way. ‘Peace only happens when you respect the rights of others’ is a quote from the Peace University in Costa Rica and I think that's a really important message for me and for my life. You either belong to that hurt or you free yourself and forgiveness is clearly a super effective way of freeing yourself.”

-pg

Before Night Falls
Before Night Falls

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Mike Bennion

SONG: Before Night FallsFROM: Passion

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Mike Bennion

SONG: Before Night Falls FROM: Passion

Video info:

This piece is a visual poem, attempting to complement the exotic and sacral nature of the music. It is heavily inspired by the 1969 film ’The Colour of Pomegranates’ by Sergei Parajanov. It uses a similar minimalist, old school film grammar, real locations, no camera moves, no special effects, no actors just ordinary people, symbolic gestures whose meaning has been lost over time. A combination of my subconscious and the whims of AI has produced something we don’t understand, and that is what hopefully holds our attention, to figure out the puzzle.

Song info:

Before Night Falls is a track taken from Peter Gabriel's album Passion, released in June 1989.

Music by Peter Gabriel. Produced by Peter Gabriel.
The Ney flute plays a traditional Armenian melody.

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

[Passion] was one of the most important records for me – an opportunity as a writer to try to do a different sort of job than I usually do. The brief for The Last Temptation Of Christ was to create something that had references to that time and that part of the world, but that had its own character and was to be timeless in a way.

-pg

In Your Eyes
In Your Eyes

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Lightbrush

SONG: In Your Eyes FROM: So

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Lightbrush

SONG: In Your Eyes FROM: So

Video info:

The nearly 6-minute music video for “In Your Eyes” was generated entirely with Luma and Deforum, combining a few different styles of a.i. Animation, including long-form keyframe animation. Clips were selected, and edited with Adobe After Effects.

Song info:

In Your Eyes is a track taken from Peter Gabriel's album So, released in May 1986.

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

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

‘In Your Eyes’ was the first thing that I’d recorded, I think, with Youssou and it was very important for that reason. It was around the time I was going to Africa and really getting inspired by a lot of the music I was hearing there, particularly rhythmically and vocally. I’ve described Youssou’s voice as “liquid gold” and I think when he comes in singing on that track it’s just a fantastic moment. We’ve since gone on to do a lot of other things, but that was one of the most exciting.
-pg

Road To Joy (Dark-Side Mix)
Road To Joy (Dark-Side Mix)

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Tristan Zand

SONG: Road to Joy (Dark-Side Mix) FROM i/o

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Tristan Zand

SONG: Road to Joy (Dark-Side Mix) FROM i/o

Video info

The song I had the honour of working with simply made me feel good: pure, positive musical energy with a groove that reaches the heart through the ears. It felt essential not to alter that core musical experience, so I aimed to create a subtle visual layer, one that echoes the strong rhythm section while leaving space for the viewer to explore the melodies and lyrics.

In a time when generative AI often blurs the line between real and synthetic, I felt it was important to leave visible traces of the various tools and techniques I used. I also wove in visual references to Peter’s past work, those familiar codes that still linger in our shared visual memory.

Song info:

Road to Joy is a track taken from Peter Gabriel's album i/o, released on 1 December 2023. This is the Dark-Side Mix, by Tchad Blake.

Words and music by Peter Gabriel. Produced by Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno

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

‘I'm working on a project which is partly a story focused around the brain and how we perceive things and this song connects to that. It deals with near-death experience and locked-in syndrome situations where people are unable to communicate or to move. It's an amazingly frustrating condition. There have been some great books and films about this subject, but at this point in our story the people looking after our hero manage to find a way to wake him up. So, it’s a lyric about coming back into your senses, back to life, back into the world.’ - pg

Playing for Time (Dark-Side Mix)
Playing for Time (Dark-Side Mix)

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Dominic DeJoseph

SONG: Playing for Time (Dark-Side Mix) FROM i/o

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Dominic DeJoseph

SONG: Playing for Time (Dark-Side Mix) FROM i/o

Video info:

Understanding the creative dilemma posed by the integration of Artificial Intelligence in the arts, I decided to take a ride down that slippery slope to explore its potential for the creation of novel and experimental works, akin to the Surrealists’ practice of automatic writing, which enabled them to create dreamlike imagery seemingly out of thin air.

Song info:

Playing for Time is a track taken from Peter Gabriel's album i/o, released on 1 December 2023. This is the Dark-Side Mix, by Tchad Blake.

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

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

Some songs arrive very quickly, Playing for Time was not one of those. I had been working on it, on and off, for several years and have sometimes performed it live, without lyrics.

It's about time, mortality and memories and the idea that each of us has a planet full of memories which get stashed inside the brain. Just like the hit songs of their youth which trigger extraordinary responses in dementia patients, I am fascinated by the mechanisms, smells and sounds which allow memories to reopen.

-pg

This Is Home (Bright-Side Mix)
This Is Home (Bright-Side Mix)

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Ezra Soiferman

SONG: This Is Home (Bright-Side Mix) FROM i/o

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Ezra Soiferman

SONG: This Is Home (Bright-Side Mix) FROM i/o

Video info:

To mesh with the theme of home, I sifted through thousands of images in my photo collection, finding my favourite shots of animals and insects in their homes or natural habitats.
I selected birds, bees and butterflies as well as tons of other critters: some fuzzy, some feathery, some sleek; a bunch of up-close macro shots of stunning flowers too.
I was happy with how it was all clicking into place so smoothly, but felt it was missing something: another visual layer to connect what we are seeing to the song.
 “What can I add to this to take it to the next level?,” I wondered. After a minute of head-scratching my mind blurted out: "The concert photos!” How did this not dawn on me sooner?
I had been so taken by the song and so busy finding just the right nature shots to go with it, that I had overlooked the fact that a month earlier I'd actually shot photos of Gabriel in concert at Montreal’s Bell Centre.
Fuelled by this brainwave, I began interspersing photos of him and his incredible band in THEIR natural habitat… up on stage. Long story short, it all just worked.
My hope is that this fan video brings a deeper appreciation for the seemingly infinite (but frequently threatened) species and habitats all around us. My goal is to shine a grateful spotlight on all these creatures, showing their interactions with each other and the natural world around them.
May the colour, warmth and beauty they offer provide some much-needed hope in today’s topsy-turvy world. After all, “This is home” and - as far as I know - it’s the only one we and the animals have.
I’m thrilled to share all this with you today. Thanks for reading, thanks for watching and please feel free to share it with others if you dig it!
The video “This Is Home” was featured in the February 2024 issue of BBC Wildlife Magazine.

Song info:

This Is Home is a track taken from Peter Gabriel's album i/o, released on 1 December 2023. This is the Bright-Side Mix, by Mark 'Spike' Stent.

Words and music by Peter Gabriel. Produced by Peter Gabriel and Richard Russell.

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

“This Is Home is a love song. It began with inspiration from some of the great Tamla Motown rhythm sections so we’re trying to recreate that in a modern way, complete with the tambourine and handclaps. The groove I like a lot, Tony Levin does a great bass part there.

I did an unusual thing for me in that I tried doing this low voice / high voice thing, so you get this almost conversational voice at the beginning and the second part is a higher, more emotional voice. I thought that would be both intimate and emotive to put the two side by side.”

-pg

Panopticom (Bright-Side Mix)
Panopticom (Bright-Side Mix)

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Dominic DeJoseph

SONG: Panopticom (Bright-Side Mix) FROM i/o

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Dominic DeJoseph

SONG: Panopticom (Bright-Side Mix) FROM i/o

Video info:

Understanding the creative dilemma posed by the integration of Artificial Intelligence in the arts, I decided to take a ride down that slippery slope to explore its potential for the creation of novel and experimental works, akin to the Surrealists’ practice of automatic writing, which enabled them to create dreamlike imagery seemingly out of thin air.

Song info:

Panopticom is a track taken from Peter Gabriel's album i/o, released on 1 December 2023. This is the Bright-Side Mix, by Mark ‘Spike’ Stent.

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

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

This song is based on an idea I have been working on to initiate the creation of an infinitely expandable accessible data globe: The Panopticom. We are beginning to connect a like-minded group of people who might be able to bring this to life, to allow the world to see itself better and understand more of what’s really going on.

Some of the ideas came from talking to Witness, Forensic Architecture and reading the Bellingcat book. They are all organisations that try and assemble what has happened from all sorts of clues and all sorts of data and put it all together.

-pg

Road to Joy (Bright-Side Mix)
Road to Joy (Bright-Side Mix)

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Junie Lau

SONG: Road to Joy (Bright-Side Mix) FROM i/o

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Junie Lau

SONG: Road to Joy (Bright-Side Mix) FROM i/o

Video info:

This video was created by Junie Lau, June 2024.

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Song info:

Road to Joy is a track taken from Peter Gabriel's album i/o, released on 1 December 2023. This is the Bright-Side Mix, by Mark 'Spike' Stent.

Words and music by Peter Gabriel. Produced by Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno

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

‘I'm working on a project which is partly a story focused around the brain and how we perceive things and this song connects to that. It deals with near-death experience and locked-in syndrome situations where people are unable to communicate or to move. It's an amazingly frustrating condition. There have been some great books and films about this subject, but at this point in our story the people looking after our hero manage to find a way to wake him up. So, it’s a lyric about coming back into your senses, back to life, back into the world.’ - pg

Christopher Imlay https://www.command-x.com
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