Anima | Thom Yorke's Musical Film Artistically Depicts What Digital Nomad's Are Escaping
“Anima” Definition: The feminine part of a man’s psyche and subconscious.
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has been a crucial musical mouthpiece for the millennial age.
Predating the release of Ok Computer in 1997, his finger has been on the pulse of a sick society that’s vulnerable to its core.
Two decades on, we say more than just OK to more than just our Computer.
The Karma Police have morphed into a Spiritual Gestapo.
NZ Film Freak
As a concerned creative, Yorke sought to bring this state of affairs to life for his 3rd studio album.
Partnering with director Paul Thomas Anderson, he’s concocted a short musical film on Netflix to accompany his album, Anima.
Thom Yorke told Zane Lowe:
“The reason it ended up being called ANIMA was partly because I’m obsessed with this whole dream thing. It comes from this concept that Jung had.”
“We have started to emulate what our devices say about us and emulate the way we behave from that. I had this whole thing where the reason we can watch Boris Johnson lie through his teeth, promise something that we know will never happen is that we don’t have to connect with it directly because it’s a little avatar.”
“The consequences are not real.“
A visceral, excellently choreographed epitaph of modern society, Yorke tells a love story in Orwellian surroundings opposite his real life partner, Dajana Roncione.
The Guardian
For us, it wonderfully depicts the terrifying, monolithic behemoth the Digital Nomad has shunned.
Namely, an existence that commands an over-work life-imbalance.
This is an exercise in providing a written component to a lyrical, musical and choreographed masterpiece that proves the power of collaboration across artistic disciplines.
It’s narrative is also a reminder to the Location Independent exactly what they have escaped.
Pitchfork
Fittingly, Anima’s opening scene is that claustrophobic setting where many of life’s love story’s go unwritten.
It begins on Public Transport…
Revesonline.com
Sleepy heads bob on the evening commute.
A full house at a God Forsaken time of night.
Round these parts, Rush hour is 24/7.
No longer workers, but lifeless bodies.
No longer conscious beings, but unconscious souls moved by an invisible force.
Welcome to the Machine.
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But love can survive, and be found, in the most hopeless of places.
All it takes is a stolen glance.
A shared moment.
123Movies
Next stop, hustle and bustle.
She forgets her bag.
He sees his chance.
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The uphill struggle of chivalry in the asexual regime.
Obstacles aplenty in the orchestrated choreography of the Owned & Operated.
Even the most conscious amongst the unconscious sync to the spasms of the swarm.
Traffic In The Hierarchy
Climbing the corporate ladder is a stifling, all-encompassing expectation.
Saying “No” is gravity defying.
It’s coming for you.
Conformity is demanded.
Kneel.
This is what you get,
when you mess with us.
Slash Film
So what, then, is the antidote to drudgery?
Indifference.
Independent thought.
Personal goals.
Grander aspirations.
Competence.
Forethought.
Persistence.
Courage.
Self-actualization.
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After all is said and done, a life’s work turns to scraps of paper blowing in the wind that whispers:
What could have been…
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You whisper back:
I thought we had a deal.
A Leap of Faith Into The Dawn Chorus
Find refuge in the gutter.
You quit your job again.
Short Of The Week
Heavy breathing down a dark alley.
A new train of thought.
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Discover romance under the radar.
In the middle of the vortex, the wind picked up.
First Post
Share a giggle in the shadows.
A little fairy dust.
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What could be more important?
If you must, you must.
Forget the corporate shuffle and come join the others.
If you could do it all again…
Big deal, so what?
This is nothing new. It’s the timeless truth.
If you could do it all again...
Yeah, without a second thought.
Don’t regret the regrets.
If you could do it all again…
This time, with style.
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Return to the scene of the crime.
It’s so late, it’s early.
You can’t stay up forever.
Spiders Web
Share a last glance where it all began.
Nod back to sleep on the rickety tram.
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Poor boy, it was just dream.
And That’s Where It Truly Begins…
“If you don’t dream enough, you don’t process enough… in the dream state you develop your ideas. It’s where scientists get there best ideas. It’s where musicians get there best ideas...“
“If you don’t have that, you don’t process the stuff that is happening to you.”
The ideational Genesis of the Digital and Creative Nomad’s escape from the real world begins with that awareness.
It all starts with that wondering thought on the train.
Dreaming of satisfying sleep.
Imagining a life of purpose on a course set by you.
Perhaps you are safe from drudgery.
Perhaps you’re not.
Perhaps you’re living your best life.
Perhaps everyone just thinks you are.
Perhaps you are liberated from the struggle.
Perhaps you live for the struggle.
Either way, you are exactly where you are meant to be.
It’s living in the present - existing moment by moment - that creates the flow of where you are meant to go.
(Goes better with speakers)