Polyfauna: An App by Radiohead and Universal Everything

By Ruben Lone

Radiohead, known for pushing the envelope in every regard of their creative endeavors, have released an app in collaboration with Universal Everything, the UK-based digital art practice and design studio headed by Matt Pyke. Using elements of the song “Bloom” from the King of Limbs album, Polyfauna is a complex sound and visual experience taking full advantage of the iPhone’s and Android’s resolution, speedy graphics, and enhanced sound processing. The object of the app is to follow a red dot (searchable by rotating the phone on a 360-degree axis), which once found intensely transports you into a variety of psychedelic digital environments that shift as you progress through the constructed spaces. Best enjoyed with a pair of good headphones, we recommend using this app in your own company–it requires a good deal of spinning about in less-than-natural ways. You’ll be surprised at how much space the tiny screen can afford.

A statement by Thom Yorke:

We have made an app called PolyFauna.

PolyFauna is an experimental collaboration between us (Radiohead) & Universal Everything, born out of The King of Limbs sessions and using the imagery and the sounds from the song Bloom.

It comes from an interest in early computer life-experiments and the imagined creatures of our subconscious.

Your screen is the window into an evolving world.
Move around to look around.
You can follow the red dot.
You can wear headphones.

Download Polyfauna for free for iOS or Android.