Kid A Mnesia: Exhibition

Surrounded by haunting trees and scorning sound effects, you’re thrust into the Kid A Mnesia: Exhibition. This video game walkthrough was designed by the three-time Grammy-award-winning band Radiohead, and it captures the dystopian feel of both the Kid A album, released in the year 2000, and its follow-up b-side album, Amnesiac. 

The video game is set to capture the many moods in each song. Starting off, you are placed deep in a cartoonish wooded area, with strange analog sounds. A distant red light leads you to a door, which when walked through, begins the first track of Kid A. Indulging in “Everything In Its Right Place,” you begin to walk through the vacant staircase as the door creaks shut behind you. The walls next to you have cartoon sketches of depressed characters and writings that seem to have no meaning. At the end of the staircase is a white door that seemed to go nowhere yet holds the meaning of the game’s story.

The experience of the game was like no other. The environment around you perfectly fit the music that was playing. Open landscapes were accompanied by the opened synth sounds heard all over these 2 albums. And, of course, it was full of strange rollercoasters of encounters as is with most Radiohead stuff.  

This opening to the game allowed a certain excitement for the rest of the experience. As a fan of Radiohead and both the Kid A and Amnesiac albums, I was delighted to experience the album visually. This was a very futuristic take on what albums are going to become in the approaching years. Going forward, I would like to see more albums attempt to make a visual experience to go along with the listening experience.