ExhiBIT: Inside Radiohead’s Kid A Mnesia Exhibition
The question isn’t “What are the boundaries of video games?” The question is “What boundaries?” #exhibit #music #visualart #videogame
Welcome back to Artcade, the comic mystery play that—unlike Dario Fo’s Mistero Buffo—doesn’t speak grammelot. Lucky you. All the work others do to define, catalog, and set things in stone? Around here we smash it or return to sender. Drawing boundaries isn’t Artcade’s job; at most, we put them on trial. Today we’re talking about a game that isn’t a game but maybe kind of is. To truly pin that down we’d have to debate for hours whether anything with four wheels counts as a car or anything on TV is automatically a movie. The very elaborate answer is: who cares. Enjoy the read!
We take our first steps into a strange black-and-white forest. If you’ve loved Radiohead’s albums, it’s easy to spot the touch of Stanley Donwood, the artist behind the band’s visual world. No accident: Kid A Mnesia Exhibition was hatched by Donwood and Thom Yorke.
Most bands put out compilations. Some toss in a live album now and then. In 2021 Radiohead re-released two of their records in a single set (Kid A and Amnesiac became Kid A Mnesia), adding a full bonus disc of unreleased tracks. Not satisfied, they dreamed up a wonderfully odd project that was supposed to be a physical exhibit in London. Then, like so many ideas of that era, COVID nudged them to rethink it as a fully digital show. Honestly, that might have been for the best.
Kid A Mnesia Exhibition is a wildly successful experiment (I’ll say it up front so we can move on): a visual/musical exploration that will often leave you awestruck. Straight to the visit: on the entrance door, a line pulled from “Pulk/pull revolving doors” welcomes us.
There are doors in doors
and there are trapdoors
there are doors that open by themselves
there are sliding doors and secret doors
there are doors that let you in and out
but never open
and there are trapdoors
that you can’t come back fromKID A MNESIA
EXHIBITION
Past the woods and the first corridor, we reach the Pyramud Atrium, which, as you can see on the map below, it acts as the hub linking the various sections. Despite the digital nature of the spaces, the walls are lined with wayfinding signs for the different rooms, often paired with a QR code that whisks you to the show’s catalog and website (complete with the inevitable gift shop).
Even the corridors between rooms are interesting places: great for crossing paths with other cheerful visitors.
The shift from a physical installation to a digital exhibition changed the project profoundly and allowed for environments impossible to replicate in the real world, like The Paper Chamber, a room filled with sheets of paper upended by cyclical gusts of wind.
Each space has its own atmosphere, its own specific way of interacting, its own theme. Since so much of Kid A Mnesia Exhibition’s magic rests on surprise, we won’t do a step-by-step guided tour of every room—just a few peeks. Also because you can download it for free on PlayStation 5, and on Mac or PC via the Epic Games Store.
The rooms are a blend of visuals and sound that shift as you move. And even though interaction is minimal, the mix of Radiohead’s music, images, and text never fails to provoke a reaction. If you’re a fan, the pleasure of walking inside Kid A Mnesia Exhibition borders on the ecstatic.
Kid A Mnesia Exhibition walks a tightrope between the impossible and the plausible: there are more “canonical” rooms too (see the gallery below) with semi-realistic details: straightforward framed works on the walls, signs that guide the visitor, attendants wiping glass or sweeping the floor.
Our visit is almost over, but my advice is to carve out an hour and try it yourself. Photos don’t do justice to these spaces, which reveal their full power in motion (preferably with headphones on). And because I adore you, here’s a trailer to set the mood. Kid A Mnesia Exhibition is free, offers extraordinary music, and is a feast for the eyes. The only thing missing? A tray of canapés. I’ll live.
Namethemachine, Arbitrarily Good Productions [Stanley Donwood, Thom Yorke] (2021) Kid A Mnesia Exhibition [54 min] (Playstation 5) [macOS, Windows] Epic Games
My last two coins
Radiohead have done some unbelievable things across their career. When I first heard about Kid A Mnesia Exhibition I imagined a promotional software job, like those car-company apps that show you the interior—five minutes of your life and forget about it. Forgive me, Radiohead, for underestimating you. This experiment is a different way to hear music, a different way to see an exhibition, a different way to use a controller. It’s no revolution, but it’s a mysterious object that feels tailor-made for Artcade’s pages. Where else would it belong? Until the next episode, ciao!