Radiohead released a new app for iOS and Androidcalled PolyFauna. Lead singer, Thom Yorke, made the announcement about the eerie app today on the Radiohead blog and described it as “an experimental collaboration between us (Radiohead) & Universal Everything, born out of The Kind of Limbs sessions and using the imagery and the sounds from the song Bloom.”
Once the app is opened, the user is placed in a desolate area surrounded by a thick fog. The user can explore the world by pressing the screen and swiping random items. The user’s movements then "come to life," and this is where the experimental function come in. A red dot will appear out of nowhere and taunt the user. By clicking the camera, the user can "catch" the dot, but it will violently fly at the screen and then place the user in another dimension. The user may not know what to do or understand the point of the game, but that's the point.
The inspiration for the app is said to have come from “an interest in early computer life-experiments and the imagined creatures of our subconscious.”
Thom writes, "Your screen is the window into an evolving world. Move around to look around. You can follow the red dot. You can wear headphones."
The open-ended details about the app emphasize exploration, not so much arriving to a destination.
The peculiar air behind PolyFauna can captivate the user with the spooky soundtrack of “Bloom,” off Radiohead’s album The King of Limbs. The art, created by Artist Stanley Donwood, will probably keep the user playing more.
[via LA Times]
