Twenty-six years ago, Radiohead threw themselves into the unknown with Kid A, a now-seminal document of turn-of-the-millennium anxiety and the isolating quality of digital stimuli. Amnesiac, recorded at the same time and released a year later, then expanded its predecessor’s ideas with even more tension. The sounds and musical evolution from those two projects continue to serve as a significant chapter in Radiohead’s story; as does the projects’ visual language, now combined and expanded upon in the band’s new installation Kid A Mnesia: Motion Picture House.
After launching virtually in 2021, a physical version of the film and exhibit premiered at Coachella 2026, with transfers following in Brooklyn, Chicago, Mexico City, and San Francisco. For longtime Radiohead fans, it’s a terrific reminder of the original works’ potent powers — but for younger fans, who weren’t alive during Kid A‘s release (or were very, very young, at least) it’s even more remarkable.
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Attendees enter through a long hallway with themed artwork lining the walls. Eventually, they turn the corner to find a room filled with dozens of televisions, which play a series of videos from and inspired by the visual universe of Kid A and Amnesiac. That’s not the only large scale piece, as you’ll also pass by spectacles like the massive sculpture of one of the ominous stickmen figures featured in the film or the cube at the center of the exhibit, which is adorned with four screens. There, attendees sit on benches and the floor while the Kid A Mnesia film plays simultaniously across all four screens.
The film itself is really where the experience deepens. It features a minotaur-like character walking through various liminal spaces, all of them containing some element of digital stimuli. There’s a palpable sense of sadness and confusion as we follow this figure through these various rooms and settings, including a powerful culminating moment where they stand in a control room surrounded by other figures and glitching displays, and later atop the blazing peaks found in Kid A’s album artwork. As such moments play out, the scenes are soundtracked by songs from both albums, including “Everything in Its Right Place,” “Morning Bell,” “How to Disappear Completely,” “Optimistic,” “Pyramid Song,” “You and Whose Army,” and more.
I was a five-year-old in 2000, so I wouldn’t actually engage with Kid A or Amnesiac until I was a young adult in the early 2010s. But upon visiting the Motion Picture House exhibit both at Coachella and at Brooklyn’s Agger Fish Building, I was so touched by the film sequences and soundtrack that it led me to revisit both albums. I learned that the artwork and characters from Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke were reprised from Kid A’s original promotional cycle — specifically the band’s 10-second video promos, which they called “blips.”
These videos were distributed across the internet and uploaded to Radiohead’s website. It was a novel approach at the time, as many record labels back in 2000 were less enthusiastic about using the online sphere as a promotional tool. Obviously, there was an emphasis on getting younger, more online-friendly fans to buy the album when it hit the shelves (an effort that literally paid off, by the way). But the use of online promotion, and the visual universe that was born in the process, mirrored the album’s themes of experiencing a collective world within an isolated framework.
These ideas proved to be incredibly prescient. At Coachella, seated beneath a bunker created specifically for the project, I marveled at the exhibit and film’s thoughtful hues given the context of where it was premiering — this is a loud, busy, influencer-friendly music festival, where the power of the collective is illuminated by its performers, but the event’s big money, brand-forward sheen can make you feel hopeless. Immersing myself in the Kid A Mnesia world was both soothing and depressing; I couldn’t help but relate to this wandering character, alienated within the masses, unable to escape the digital world and those participating in it.
Radiohead Motion Picture House, photo by Kate Izor
Witnessing the exhibit again in Brooklyn, especially given the newfound context around Kid A and Amnesiac’s original release, only enhanced the experience. The 2020s update is a mirror to the experience of being online. Through these characters and surrealist environments, they’ve mined the tension between digital peril and human yearning, making Kid A Mnesia a powerful document in and of itself.
And with the songs from Kid A and Amnesiac becoming re-contextualized throughout the film, it truly highlights how evocative the music is. Producer Nigel Godrich reconstructed the audio from the multitracks and sonic skeleton of both albums, building an entirely new, immersive 360 audio mix that was designed specifically for the installation. For audiophiles, it’s a revelation: Tracks like “How to Disappear Completely” and “Pyramid Song” hit harder in this format, and hearing them rendered in full spatial audio is to encounter music you thought you knew from a completely different angle. These are compositions that already felt vast, but hearing them absolutely fill a room is truly something else.
Reducing Kid A Mnesia to fan service for Radiohead’s Gen X audience sells the experience short. What the band have managed to do is bridge a generational gap between those who heard Radiohead’s predictions in real time and those who grew up as they came true — great for the older fans who’ve already had experiences with the visual world behind Kid A and Amnesiac and even more appropriate for newer fans who might find this work a thoughtful, apt summation of their lives online.
Radiohead Motion Picture House, photo by Kate Izor
It’s fitting that they’re offering student discounts for the event, as it could not be more relevant to the “iPad kid generation” (non-derogatory!). And even if you’re looking for an escape from the online sphere, Kid A Mnesia also represents a chance to hear two of Radiohead’s greatest works through some high quality speakers in a large air conditioned room. What more could you want?
Tickets for Kid A Mnesia: Motion Picture House are available now.
Radiohead Kid A Mnesia: Motion Picture House Schedule:
May 6 – July 12: Brooklyn – Agger Fish Building
July 30- August 23: Chicago – Cinespace Studio
October 27- November 15: Mexico City – La Maravilla Studios
January 14 – February 7: San Francisco – Palace of Fine Arts
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