Iamamiwhoami
Encyclopedia
iamamiwhoami is an electronic music
and multimedia
project headlined by Swedish singer-songwriter
Jonna Lee
. Videos released from the project's YouTube
channel have spread virally
. The first clip was uploaded on December 4, 2009, and was forwarded to a number of music journalists and blogs. Another two short videos followed. Chris Cantalini and MTV
writer James Montgomery reported about iamamiwhoami, fueling speculation online.
The project currently consists of three series of music video
s and a feature length
concert video. The number series, highly stylized teaser videos, set the tone of the project, established several mysteries, and served to foreshadow the projects' complete songs. The letter series is the equivalent of a studio album
containing fully realized singles
. (Released on iTunes
and Amazon.com
, each single also bears the phrase "To Whom It May Concern." Several official remixes of the letter songs have also been released.) The letter series "BOUNTY" serves as the core of the project. The final set of videos, the date series (their titles correspond to the date on which they were released), set up the webcast
concert on November 16, 2010 and asked fans to elect one of their own to attend the concert. On November 16 at 12:15 CET "In Concert" was webcast; it was removed approximately 4 hours later.
On 4 December 2010, the one-year anniversary of the posting of the first iamamiwhoami video, mp3s of "In Concert" were uploaded to Amazon, Spotify and iTunes.
iamamiwhoami is notable not only for its artistic multimedia
output, but also the creators' leveraging of social technology
(YouTube) and phenomena (viral video
s, crowdsourcing
) to disseminate their music and music videos.
As of 1 June 2011, iamamiwhoami was confirmed to be appearing at the annual Way Out West Festival
in Gothenburg
, Sweden on 12 August 2011. iamamiwhoami was also discovered to be officially signed to D.E.F. Management, who is known for recording artists Moby
, Röyksopp
, Kleerup
, Fever Ray
, and Robyn
.
The first three videos were originally released with footage of animals derived from existing YouTube
videos. The individual who owns the video of the goat birth flagged the video for copyright
infringement, leading to its removal. iamamiwhoami's videos were subsequently re-uploaded replacing the copyrighted footage with animal illustrations.
The first six videos contained numeric titles, which were later decoded by fans. The next sequence bear single letters for titles. These seven videos were followed by single releases on iTunes
and Amazon
.
iamamiwhoami's videos often refer to other YouTube videos by posting links in the description of uploads. Examples include a news segment for the release party of high-end bottled water ("Bling H20"), a video featuring a child preacher, and a clip of a child beauty pageant. These are speculated to hint towards the meanings of iamamiwhoami's videos.
refers to the mandrake root, which when fresh or dry may cause hallucination. Imagery associated with the folklore of the mandragora
(the flowering humanoid, berries, and semen of a hanged man) recurs throughout iamamiwhoami's videos.
, owl
, whale
, bee
, llama
, and monkey
). Having blogged about the videos, MTV
journalist James Montgomery received a package by messenger, which included a lock of blond hair, a piece of bark, and a pictogram of the six animals with the question "Says what?" Furthering the mystery; the sixth video ("23.5.12.3.15.13.5-8.15.13.5.3383") ends with the woman whispering "Why" or "Y."
As the seven videos with letter titles were slowly released, fans quickly realized that the videos were likely to spell the word "bounty". Each of the seven videos begins with the corresponding sound of the animal, however, the animal sounds are not present in the released tracks. The conclusion of "In Concert" reveals that the onomatopoeia used to represent the animals' calls can be made to approximate the pronunciation of the English word "bounty".
was the visually distorted lead singer. Lee's identity was confirmed with the release of the video for "t", in which her face was fully revealed without any makeup or distortion to conceal her identity.
According to rraurl.com and MTV Brasil
, "o" was directed by Viktor Kumlin, who is also the director of Lee's music video for "Something So Quiet".
were discovered to be closely related to iamamiwhoami. For example, songs titled, "Up!/Higher", "The Sound of Letting Go/Love", and "Little Hope/Sing a Song of Fire" all pertain to lyrics in iamamiwhoami's songs, "b", "o", and "y", respectively. The works were registered by Lee and Claes Björklund, the two who are believed to be responsible for the iamamiwhoami project. These songs were registered around the same time as several songs from Lee's This Is Jonna Lee 2009 album.
, The Knife
, Robyn
, Moby
, Röyksopp
, and other Swedish artists.
for "to whom it may concern." This phrase has been featured in the artwork of all single downloads. The woman from "b" and "o" does not appear in this video. The scene is filmed in the same cabin as "b" and "o."
dropping off a leaf. Standing waist-deep in the water, she raises her hands to claim a floating crown made of aluminium foil. Also in the water are an orb
and sceptre
made of the same material. Her face is shown, and the previously unidentifiable woman is now revealed to be Jonna Lee
. Lee marches through the forest, finds both the orb and sceptre, and emerges with a ruff around her neck singing atop a cliff. Six women are seen on a car wrapped with aluminium foil, and they create a message with their bodies, "I am me". As the video ends, Lee discards the ruff and dives into the water, leaving behind the three items she found to float around the water at sunset.
is then seen singing underwater. The entire location is revealed to be within a tree in a forest wrapped with aluminum foil. Lee climbs out of one tree with a vaginal opening and receives a lighted bulb from a hand above. The forest then suddenly has ceiling lights, and they each light slowly. A knight is then shown attacking a tree simultaneously while it is implied that the man in briefs masturbates and his own semen is splattered on his face.
A paper-constructed room is shown, and Lee has a paper attached to her face whilst she stands in between plant pots, filled with small leafless trees. After a baby's sneeze/cough is heard, she turns around, her face visible. Her face and entire body blackens which is seen in "n" and the first six videos. She is then wrapped in aluminium foil. She sings inside, and the scene cuts back to the starting scene of the black cat on a dining table. A foil-wrapped object sits in the centre. The recurring theme of six is present in six plates, cups, chairs and cutlery. Bare feet dripping white liquid are shown suspended above a pot of peppercorn where it drips upon. Attached to the pot is a strip of paper emblazoned, "To whom it may concern." The peppercorn move slightly, prompting an emergence.
of the man's hand reveals he is wearing a plain gold ring. A different hand wearing a similar ring (belonging to the blonde woman in the bathtub) is then shown. Dripping water is heard occurring in a bathroom, from a shower head into a bathtub. A crane shot
reveals an ostensibly drowned blonde woman in briefs in the bathtub. (Both people have plastic bags over their heads.)
A foot slowly emerges from the spilled peppercorn pot which hops through a hallway. Animals follow in a parallel hallway. They arrive at the foyer of the residence, a naked woman is seen, her head still hidden in the pot. As she removes the pot, the screen goes black. In the darkness, her voice can be heard singing. As she finishes her brief lyric, the black screen is revealed to be in her perspective (point of view shot
) as she lifts the pot from her head, approaches, unlocks, and turns the handle of the door. A wisp of blonde hair is seen on her shoulder.
. The letter, sent by Hillary (YouTube user "Tehhils"), apologizes for not being able to participate in the project and recommends YouTube user "ShootUpTheStation" as a replacement. Although parts of the email are redacted
, ShootUpTheStation's telephone number has been penciled in below his username
. The woman dials the number and twists the phone's cord around her finger as it rings. A man's voice answers, and the woman tells him to turn on his camera. The film switches to the man's low-quality webcam
. He's young, blond, facing away from the camera, and speaking on a mobile phone. The latter half of the video is dedicated to their conversation, in which the woman questions the young man about himself, his preferences, and his metaphysical
beliefs. The conversation concludes with the woman telling him that he must record his journey to her and that they will meet at the airport.
style of videos by YouTube user "ShootUpTheStation." The video documents his journey from Germany to Sweden to meet an unknown group of people. He boards a plane at the Berlin Tegel Airport. Upon arriving, he takes an elevator which reads "Våning ett"(Swedish
for "first floor"). He then boards a car and is driven to what was later identified as the Handen
Quality Hotel Winn Haninge.
"101112-2" follows the same trend as before, with "ShootUpTheStation" arriving at his hotel, entering his room and reading through an envelope marked with the words, "To whom it may concern". The rest of the video shows what is in the envelope, a piece of paper with an itinerary on it.
Each day is busy, from Friday 12 November to Sunday 14 November. The itinerary is packed with Visitors at 6pm on Friday, visitors at 1pm and 4pm, with 7pm being filled with a 'talk' on Saturday, there is a glimpse at Sunday, but no details. The video finishes here.
"101113" begins with "ShootUpTheStation" answering a ringing phone in his hotel room and telling the speaker that the camera is on. Music begins playing in the background, and there is a knock on the door. He goes to answer it, whilst the camera continues to only film the bed; leaving the viewer to guess what is happening. The sound of plastic and presumably masking tape is heard. Camera flashes are seen and heard as well, presumably for ShootUpTheStation's "funeral" photo. The video ends with a baggy-sleeved arm reaching for the camera's power button.
"101114": A bearded man, his face obscured in post-production, enters ShootUpTheStation's room and briefly teaches him how to do the waltz that takes place in the concert (whilst humming "The Blue Danube
") and bow. The lesson complete, the men shake hands and the bearded man departs.
"101115": A man in braces
, his face obscured in post-production, arrives with the plastic bag holding ShootUpTheStation's concert attire, which he lays out on the man's hotel bed (off-screen) before leaving. After the man leaves, ShootUpTheStation provides a brief look at the dark ensemble.
"http://towhomitmayconcern.cc/": Over the recurring visual of a corkboard to which a cutout phrase ("To Whom It May Concern.") is pinned, and featuring the (slightly different) words "10.11.16 12AM CET IN CONCERT" in pointillism
, the woman's voice speaks: "At 12:01 AM Swedish time we act in concert on the wish to evolve. We will present you with a plausible path available for 6 hours on 'It Is What It Is'."
"101115-2": Uploaded just before midnight CET, it features a static shot of ShootUpTheStation's empty hotel room as he has a brief telephone conversation and someone knocks on his door.
in a room with plastic sheets and a bed made of rolls of toilet paper. The recurring black dog from other videos runs through a town, the forest from "t" and past a white house. She wears a single terrycloth-like jumpsuit and hood. As the video progresses, she begins to move erotically and dance on the bed while underwear-clad people outside of the room wait to be allowed entry. Eventually she opens the door to allow a man in, and they engage in sexual intercourse, seen through surveillance televisions lining the wall outside of the room. The video ends as the camera pulls back throughout the entire setting, revealing the waiting line of nude people, a change room where white coat hangers litter the room and people are disrobing. Jonna, now only clad in underwear, knots a plastic bag and places it into a hole above a door. The final scene shows a hooded figure picking up a phone while a dialing tone sounds for the remainder of the video. The video ends with the door to the white house closing.
Common elements throughout the series, such as the black dog, people in underwear, and cups of white substance reappear in this video.
The main prop of the video, the toilet paper bed, was used during their first live performance at Way Out West.
The concert was scheduled to begin at 12:01 AM CET [6 PM EST] on 16 November 2010. A fan website (http://www.iambounty.tk/), provided a countdown clock and allowed fans to live blog
the event. At 12:01 AM CET the concert did not start promptly. The concert began at approximately 12:15 AM CET, with the corkboard date notice being replaced by a streaming Flash
video of the concert.
The concert video was 1 hour and 4 minutes in length. After 4 hours the video was removed, despite the assumption that it would remain up for 6 hours (as inferred from the YouTube video "http://towhomitmayconcern.cc/"). Tech-savvy fans downloaded the high-quality streaming FLV as well as ripping the audio from the file. Upon the concert's removal, they uploaded the video and audio to file sharing
websites (such as MediaFire
) and file hosting services (such as YouTube
) for those that missed the original broadcast. (An example of a fan effort to disseminate the concert can be found at http://www.iamconcert.com.) 15 hours after the concert ended, the videos setting up the concert ("101112" - "101115-2", "20101001", "20101109", and "http://towhomitmayconcern.cc/") were deleted from the iamamiwhoami YouTube account.
Although the concert appeared to be a live, "one take" tracking shot
there are clear areas where cuts where used to edit segments of the concert together. For example, the transition from "n" to "o" occurs by passing by a dark tree in closeup, then cutting to a similar shot of ShootUpTheStation in the "church". The transition from "o" to "13.1.14.4.18.1.7.15.18.1.1110" occurs when the camera zooms in on one of Lee's minions' black shirt, then zooms back out.
On 4 December 2010 the full, unedited audio of the concert was released digitally on Amazon and iTunes titled "In Concert". Segmented tracks of "b", "t", "n", "o", "u-2", "y" and "." also became available alongside the complete audio. (The YouTube video "20101104" contained a lyrical fragment from ".", a new song featured only in "In Concert".)
The car arrives at the concert site and the view switches to an exterior video camera placed before the parked car. Lee uses a keyboard to play "b" using a harpsichord
synth
. She then exits and continues the song at the boot of the car. On her neck is a strawberry necklace from the Prelude videos.
At the end of "b", Lee takes ShootUpTheStation by the hand, leading him from the car through concert barrier gates. They brave a phalanx of veiled laughing people, while a remix of "Prelude 699130082.451322-5.4.21.3.1.20.9.15.14.1.12" is playing in the background. When they reach a turn in the gates, Lee mimes tracing smoke in the distance, then begins "t" featuring thundering cathedral bells. Behind her, tents light up in the darkness in sync with the song's bassline
. She walks away into the darkness and ShootUpTheStation follows.
At a backlit tree, Lee rests in an over-sized cardboard gown. ShootUpTheStation enters the cardboard gown structure from below and "20101001" plays. Within the gown is a wood. A man holding the lightbulb from "y" lights his way. "n" begins and he comes upon the cardboard puppet from "u-1". Lee, in the distance as her incarnation from "y", with long, flowing blonde hair, awaits him. They waltz and bow, as foreshadowed by "101114", in part to a dissonant
electric guitar
solo
. As the song concludes we see men in briefs miming sex acts on trees.
The song ends and ShootUpTheStation stands alone in front of the hair-clad Lee in a makeshift church within the wood, the stained glass
windows and rosette
represented by white paper illuminated from behind. In the middle of the space is a cardboard box. As Lee sings a remix of "o" she sheds her hair suit, revealing a black leotard, fingerless black-lace gloves, and a prominent clerical collar
at her neck. Lee beckons for ShootUpTheStation to get into the box and he is sealed inside. The song ends and "13.1.14.4.18.1.7.15.18.1.1110" begins as Lee and her minions lay hands
on the cardboard box coffin. Lee reappears in a dark green bodysuit and lays down on the coffin and an image of ShootUpTheStation is turned over on her chest in a mock-funeral
.
Lee gets up and dances to a new interlude as her minions gyrate at the coffin's side. The coffin is led away to a remix of "u-2". She leads the procession out of the forest, beneath the fluorescent lights from "y", and over plank bridges to a road where the car from the intro awaits. A man on the hood is manipulating a synthesizer, and the procession 'rounds the car and reaches the cardboard box fort from "u-2".
The minions load the coffin box into the castle while "15.6.6.9.3.9.14.1.18.21.13.56155" plays in the background. Crosses from "23.5.12.3.15.13.5-8.15.13.5.3383" can be seen in the background. Lee's funeral body suit is removed, revealing a white suit. The minions retreat, closing the fort. The fort is engulfed in flames and she begins singing "y". The camera faces skyward, revealing a wicker mirror suspended by a beam. Its cracked face reflects Lee, lying on knotty pine reminiscent of the lodge seen in "o" and "u-1", caressing herself. The camera returns to Lee. A new bridge
plays as she crawls to the site of the burnt fort. She rubs ash on her body and face. She then gathers some of the ash in a piece of aluminum foil. She carries it with her as she sings the lyrics to "9.20.19.13.5.723378" unaccompanied.
Lee buries the aluminum-foil-wrapped ashes using a shovel. She sits at a keyboard nearby, covers herself with black chiffon veil, and sings "." (a complete version of the lyrical fragment found at the end of "20101104") using the keyboard's organ synth as an accompaniment.
After finishing the song she covers the keyboard with the veil and dons a false tail and monkey mask. Lee walks to a table where men dressed in papier-mâché
costumes of an owl and a goat are seated. Men dressed as a llama, whale, and bee join them. The owl pours champagne, Lee toasts, and the assembly each make their animal noises from the Prelude videos. When the animal calls are made in order, their vocalizations approximate the pronunciation of the English word "Bounty", thus solving the project's central riddle. The assembly drinks and the concert ends.
On May 31, 2011, Way Out West Festival
announced iamamiwhoami as part of the line-up for 2011 to be held during August 11–13, 2011, in Gothenburg
, Sweden. This was their first live concert. The featured a promo image for the concert with a Sweden phone number; calling, it answers with a recording of an acapella song with a background ringing, apparently as a continuation of "; john". This song is currently referred to as "+46 702 888 037".
The concert saw the return of the toilet paper bed and white terrycloth from "; john" and "clump". The concert opened with a screening of a continuation of where the "; john" video left off, with the camera view entering the open door of the white house, and seeing one of the men in underwear placing a plastic bag into a hole in the wall. Three cameramen were seen following Lee throughout the performance, which included explicit symbolism. Concert interludes depicted copulation and fertilization with toilet paper rolls, and Lee's choreography mimicked several sexual and gestational themes. All of iamamiwhoami's released tracks were performed with the exception of "In Concert; .". "u-1" was performed in the soundcheck before the concert. After the festival had finished on Sunday 13th August, the concert promo image on the website towhomitmayconcern.cc was removed and replaced with the black screen they used after the To Whom It May Concern concert.
In other news, why is this on the internet? It sure seems like a waste of fucking time.
held on January 2011, iamamiwhoami won the award of "Innovator of the Year" (Årets Innovatör), a newly inaugurated category. An anonymous woman (referred to as 'Key Lady' by the fans as she wore a key necklace) received the award on their behalf and handed to the speaker an envelope with the words "To whom it may concern" taped in front. The content is revealed to be an empty piece of paper. Before leaving, the woman says, "Thank you. That's all I am allowed to say".
award in January 2011 in the "Innovative Artist" category. Fellow nominees included Lady Gaga
, Kanye West
and Tyler, the Creator
. The award eventually went to Lady Gaga.
The project was nominated again in October 2011 at OMA's second edition, this time in the "Best Web-Born Artist" category. Unfortunately, iamamiwhoami lost the award to Kina Grannis.
, 15 March 2010, the official iamamiwhoami iOS app
appeared in the iTunes Store
sold by iLike, Inc. The app's icon features a question mark on a black background. The main menu features the wood grain album art of u-1 and u-2, with sub menus that lead to videos and music. The video menu contains an RSS feed of the currently available YouTube videos. The music menu contains a full stream of the available songs from iLike.com, the option to purchase individual songs in the iOS's default iTunes store app, and the option to see more of iamamiwhoami's music in the iOS' default iTunes store app (such as the In Concert songs, which are not featured in the official app).
The app is no longer currently available for purchase on iTunes.
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
and multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
project headlined by Swedish singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
Jonna Lee
Jonna Lee (singer)
Jonna Lee is a singer-songwriter from Linköping, Sweden, currently residing in Stockholm and London, UK.-Early life:Lee was born 1981 in Linköping and grew up in a small Swedish village in the country with her mother...
. Videos released from the project's YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
channel have spread virally
Viral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
. The first clip was uploaded on December 4, 2009, and was forwarded to a number of music journalists and blogs. Another two short videos followed. Chris Cantalini and MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
writer James Montgomery reported about iamamiwhoami, fueling speculation online.
The project currently consists of three series of music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s and a feature length
Feature length
Feature length is motion picture terminology referring to the length of a feature film. According to the rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a feature length motion picture must have a running time of more than 40 minutes to be eligible for an Academy Award.The term may also...
concert video. The number series, highly stylized teaser videos, set the tone of the project, established several mysteries, and served to foreshadow the projects' complete songs. The letter series is the equivalent of a studio album
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
containing fully realized singles
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
. (Released on iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
and Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, each single also bears the phrase "To Whom It May Concern." Several official remixes of the letter songs have also been released.) The letter series "BOUNTY" serves as the core of the project. The final set of videos, the date series (their titles correspond to the date on which they were released), set up the webcast
Webcast
A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand...
concert on November 16, 2010 and asked fans to elect one of their own to attend the concert. On November 16 at 12:15 CET "In Concert" was webcast; it was removed approximately 4 hours later.
On 4 December 2010, the one-year anniversary of the posting of the first iamamiwhoami video, mp3s of "In Concert" were uploaded to Amazon, Spotify and iTunes.
iamamiwhoami is notable not only for its artistic multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
output, but also the creators' leveraging of social technology
Social technology
The term Social Technology was first used at the University of Chicago by Albion Woodbury Small and Charles Richmond Henderson around the end of the 19th century. Small and Henderson were close colleagues, and it is hard to tell who used the term first...
(YouTube) and phenomena (viral video
Viral video
A viral video is one that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and email...
s, crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community through an open call....
) to disseminate their music and music videos.
As of 1 June 2011, iamamiwhoami was confirmed to be appearing at the annual Way Out West Festival
Way Out West Festival
Way Out West is a three-day music festival held in Gothenburg, Sweden, during August that plays host to a variety of popular music artists mainly from the rock, electronic and hip-hop genres...
in Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden on 12 August 2011. iamamiwhoami was also discovered to be officially signed to D.E.F. Management, who is known for recording artists Moby
Moby
Richard Melville Hall , better known by his stage name Moby, is an American musician, DJ, and photographer. He is known mainly for his sample-based electronic music and his outspoken liberal political views, including his support of veganism and animal rights.Moby gained attention in the early...
, Röyksopp
Röyksopp
Röyksopp is a Norwegian electronic music duo from Tromsø, formed in 1998. Since their inception, the band's line-up has included Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland....
, Kleerup
Kleerup
Andreas Kleerup, known professionally by his last name, is a Swedish record producer, drummer, and member of the Swedish group The Meat Boys, from Stockholm, Sweden. His first mainstream collaboration was as the producer of fellow Swedish artist Robyn's #1 UK single, "With Every Heartbeat", also...
, Fever Ray
Karin Dreijer Andersson
Karin Elisabeth Dreijer Andersson , commonly known by her stage name Fever Ray, is the lead vocalist of the electronic duo The Knife, formed with her brother Olof Dreijer. Andersson was previously the vocalist and guitarist of the alternative rock band Honey Is Cool...
, and Robyn
Robyn
Robin Miriam Carlsson , better known by her stage name Robyn, is a Swedish recording artist, singer, and songwriter. Robyn became known in the late nineties for her worldwide dance-pop hit "Do You Know " from her debut album Robyn Is Here . She co-wrote the song "Du gör mig hel igen" for...
.
YouTube videos
To date, iamamiwhoami have released 23 videos, six of which are short, roughly one-minute long teasers.The first three videos were originally released with footage of animals derived from existing YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
videos. The individual who owns the video of the goat birth flagged the video for copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
infringement, leading to its removal. iamamiwhoami's videos were subsequently re-uploaded replacing the copyrighted footage with animal illustrations.
The first six videos contained numeric titles, which were later decoded by fans. The next sequence bear single letters for titles. These seven videos were followed by single releases on iTunes
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
and Amazon
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
.
iamamiwhoami's videos often refer to other YouTube videos by posting links in the description of uploads. Examples include a news segment for the release party of high-end bottled water ("Bling H20"), a video featuring a child preacher, and a clip of a child beauty pageant. These are speculated to hint towards the meanings of iamamiwhoami's videos.
Numeric codes
The first six videos are titled with a series of numbers. When indexed into the alphabet, these spell out words such as "educational", "I am", "its me", "mandragora", "officinarum", and "welcome home". Mandragora officinarumMandragora officinarum
Mandragora officinarum is a species of the plant genus mandrake. It has a variety of medicinal uses, especially anodyne and soporific, though in the past much of the use was due to superstition.-Physical characteristics:...
refers to the mandrake root, which when fresh or dry may cause hallucination. Imagery associated with the folklore of the mandragora
Mandrake (plant)
Mandrake is the common name for members of the plant genus Mandragora, particularly the species Mandragora officinarum, belonging to the nightshades family...
(the flowering humanoid, berries, and semen of a hanged man) recurs throughout iamamiwhoami's videos.
Animals
Each of the first six clips end with a drawing of a different animal (a goatGoat
The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...
, owl
Owl
Owls are a group of birds that belong to the order Strigiformes, constituting 200 bird of prey species. Most are solitary and nocturnal, with some exceptions . Owls hunt mostly small mammals, insects, and other birds, although a few species specialize in hunting fish...
, whale
Whale
Whale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...
, bee
Bee
Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...
, llama
Llama
The llama is a South American camelid, widely used as a meat and pack animal by Andean cultures since pre-Hispanic times....
, and monkey
Monkey
A monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...
). Having blogged about the videos, MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
journalist James Montgomery received a package by messenger, which included a lock of blond hair, a piece of bark, and a pictogram of the six animals with the question "Says what?" Furthering the mystery; the sixth video ("23.5.12.3.15.13.5-8.15.13.5.3383") ends with the woman whispering "Why" or "Y."
As the seven videos with letter titles were slowly released, fans quickly realized that the videos were likely to spell the word "bounty". Each of the seven videos begins with the corresponding sound of the animal, however, the animal sounds are not present in the released tracks. The conclusion of "In Concert" reveals that the onomatopoeia used to represent the animals' calls can be made to approximate the pronunciation of the English word "bounty".
Artists' identities
With the release of "b" and "o" fans soon guessed that Jonna LeeJonna Lee (singer)
Jonna Lee is a singer-songwriter from Linköping, Sweden, currently residing in Stockholm and London, UK.-Early life:Lee was born 1981 in Linköping and grew up in a small Swedish village in the country with her mother...
was the visually distorted lead singer. Lee's identity was confirmed with the release of the video for "t", in which her face was fully revealed without any makeup or distortion to conceal her identity.
According to rraurl.com and MTV Brasil
MTV Brasil
MTV Brasil is the Brazilian version of MTV, owned by Abril Mídia, the nation's largest magazine publisher, under license from Viacom - owned MTV Networks Latin AmericaMTV Brasil is one of two versions of MTV available in free-to-air terrestrial television...
, "o" was directed by Viktor Kumlin, who is also the director of Lee's music video for "Something So Quiet".
Registered songs
On 7 February 2011, several registered songs on ISWCInternational Standard Musical Work Code
International Standard Musical Work Code is a unique identifier for musical works, similar to ISBN. It is adopted as international standard ISO 15707...
were discovered to be closely related to iamamiwhoami. For example, songs titled, "Up!/Higher", "The Sound of Letting Go/Love", and "Little Hope/Sing a Song of Fire" all pertain to lyrics in iamamiwhoami's songs, "b", "o", and "y", respectively. The works were registered by Lee and Claes Björklund, the two who are believed to be responsible for the iamamiwhoami project. These songs were registered around the same time as several songs from Lee's This Is Jonna Lee 2009 album.
Management
iamamiwhoami is managed by the London-based D.E.F. Artist Management. Other artists on their roster include Fever RayKarin Dreijer Andersson
Karin Elisabeth Dreijer Andersson , commonly known by her stage name Fever Ray, is the lead vocalist of the electronic duo The Knife, formed with her brother Olof Dreijer. Andersson was previously the vocalist and guitarist of the alternative rock band Honey Is Cool...
, The Knife
The Knife
The Knife are a Swedish electronic music duo from Gothenburg, formed in 1999. The group consists of siblings Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer, who together also run their own record company, Rabid Records. They first received international attention after their song "Heartbeats", covered by...
, Robyn
Robyn
Robin Miriam Carlsson , better known by her stage name Robyn, is a Swedish recording artist, singer, and songwriter. Robyn became known in the late nineties for her worldwide dance-pop hit "Do You Know " from her debut album Robyn Is Here . She co-wrote the song "Du gör mig hel igen" for...
, Moby
Moby
Richard Melville Hall , better known by his stage name Moby, is an American musician, DJ, and photographer. He is known mainly for his sample-based electronic music and his outspoken liberal political views, including his support of veganism and animal rights.Moby gained attention in the early...
, Röyksopp
Röyksopp
Röyksopp is a Norwegian electronic music duo from Tromsø, formed in 1998. Since their inception, the band's line-up has included Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland....
, and other Swedish artists.
First published interview
On November 7th, 2011, Bullett Media posted a interview article with iamamiwhoami for their Winter 2011 'Secrets' Issue. Questions were answered strictly with sampled lyrics from the current repertoire of songs, with some additional and unknown phrases purported to be lyrics for future musical releases. The article also included promotional images of iamamiwhoami, nude in the forest and posed among similar elements from "; john" and "t". . The article is referenced to be written and photographed by iamamiwhoami.b
The seventh music video, uploaded on March 14, 2010, was titled "b", containing no numbers, breaking the trend of the previous videos. It does not include an illustration at the end, nor a numeric code. It begins with a shot of a children's mobile, along with the words 'to whom it may concern." in a wooden cabin. An hourglass is turned over and a blonde woman, wrapped in plastic, begins to play the piano. Four men sit in the room, seemingly entranced by her music. Their behavior and shots of their footwear suggest they are using the woman and her singing for medicinal purposes. The hourglass runs out and the woman finishes her song. The video ends with the camera on an empty crib, while a black cat exits the room six times on a loop.o
The eighth video, "o", begins in the same cabin seen in "b." A black cat is beside a leafless, potted tree. The camera pans to the back of the cabin, and a greenhouse/botanical nursery is revealed with more potted, leafless trees. The trees have blinking eyes. The woman is seen standing in a pot, covered in netting. She eventually frees herself. She wears an Elizabethan collar, standing beneath a cup hanging from the ceiling. The recurring number, six is shown in the form of six skulls. The woman is then sitting on the edge of a pot, freed from her collar. The camera pans back into the cabin where we see the tree, with her discarded collar hanging from the branches, now bearing berries.u-1
"u-1," features a man in briefs running through a forest towards a fort made of cardboard, and another with a puppet. At the start of the music video, the puppet utters, "a quién le corresponda," SpanishSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
for "to whom it may concern." This phrase has been featured in the artwork of all single downloads. The woman from "b" and "o" does not appear in this video. The scene is filmed in the same cabin as "b" and "o."
u-2
"u-2" sees the man wandering through the fort. Upon finding a bottle of liquid and touching it, he begins to dance. Various scenes are shown of the man in briefs presumably performing sexual acts to the puppet.n
At the beginning, the cat is seen puring and can be heard a buzzing bee (which refers to "13.1.14.4.18.1.7.15.18.1.1110") and a barking dog. Then, the woman is seen lying in tin foil atop wooden boards, covered in various foods. Six lettuce leaves are placed at her head. She is later seen in a forest, covered in a dark substance. The camera pans out to reveal this covers only her face and shoulders; as wears red cup-like devices on her breasts, and holds two cups of white liquid. More cups dot the forest floor. We see a structure made of white papers. Inside, there is a wooden computer where a black cat sits. In a mirror, we see a camera, with a young child operating it. As the video closes a figure covered in plastic bottles walks into the forest.t
"t," the twelfth video, the woman is naked and covered in white drops. It opens with footage of a snailSnail
Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...
dropping off a leaf. Standing waist-deep in the water, she raises her hands to claim a floating crown made of aluminium foil. Also in the water are an orb
Globus cruciger
The globus cruciger is an orb topped with a cross , a Christian symbol of authority used throughout the Middle Ages and even today on coins, iconography and royal regalia...
and sceptre
Sceptre
A sceptre is a symbolic ornamental rod or wand borne in the hand by a ruling monarch as an item of royal or imperial insignia.-Antiquity:...
made of the same material. Her face is shown, and the previously unidentifiable woman is now revealed to be Jonna Lee
Jonna Lee (singer)
Jonna Lee is a singer-songwriter from Linköping, Sweden, currently residing in Stockholm and London, UK.-Early life:Lee was born 1981 in Linköping and grew up in a small Swedish village in the country with her mother...
. Lee marches through the forest, finds both the orb and sceptre, and emerges with a ruff around her neck singing atop a cliff. Six women are seen on a car wrapped with aluminium foil, and they create a message with their bodies, "I am me". As the video ends, Lee discards the ruff and dives into the water, leaving behind the three items she found to float around the water at sunset.
y
"y" the thirteenth video, begins with a black cat walking on a dining table. The camera turns to the man in briefs from "u-1" and "u-2" sitting on a throne while having the foil objects from "t" while chucking paper around. Jonna LeeJonna Lee (singer)
Jonna Lee is a singer-songwriter from Linköping, Sweden, currently residing in Stockholm and London, UK.-Early life:Lee was born 1981 in Linköping and grew up in a small Swedish village in the country with her mother...
is then seen singing underwater. The entire location is revealed to be within a tree in a forest wrapped with aluminum foil. Lee climbs out of one tree with a vaginal opening and receives a lighted bulb from a hand above. The forest then suddenly has ceiling lights, and they each light slowly. A knight is then shown attacking a tree simultaneously while it is implied that the man in briefs masturbates and his own semen is splattered on his face.
A paper-constructed room is shown, and Lee has a paper attached to her face whilst she stands in between plant pots, filled with small leafless trees. After a baby's sneeze/cough is heard, she turns around, her face visible. Her face and entire body blackens which is seen in "n" and the first six videos. She is then wrapped in aluminium foil. She sings inside, and the scene cuts back to the starting scene of the black cat on a dining table. A foil-wrapped object sits in the centre. The recurring theme of six is present in six plates, cups, chairs and cutlery. Bare feet dripping white liquid are shown suspended above a pot of peppercorn where it drips upon. Attached to the pot is a strip of paper emblazoned, "To whom it may concern." The peppercorn move slightly, prompting an emergence.
20101001 (video deleted)
On Friday 1 October 2010 a video titled "20101001" was uploaded calling for one volunteer. The viewers of the video are trusted to select a representative who will then supply their name, telephone number and home address by Friday 8 October at 12:00AM CET. The video links to a website that appears to promote an upcoming concert. The initial volunteer was YouTube user "tehhils", but due to issues in obtaining a passport in time for the project, YouTube user "ShootUpTheStation" was appointed by "tehhils".20101104
"20101104" opens in a white residence, continuing from the end of "y". The feet belong to the man in briefs, surrounded by the recurring cat and dog in the series. The bowl of peppercorn below him spontaneously spills across the floor. An extreme close-upClose-up
In filmmaking, television production, still photography and the comic strip medium a close-up tightly frames a person or an object. Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium shots and long shots . Close-ups display the most detail, but they do not include the broader scene...
of the man's hand reveals he is wearing a plain gold ring. A different hand wearing a similar ring (belonging to the blonde woman in the bathtub) is then shown. Dripping water is heard occurring in a bathroom, from a shower head into a bathtub. A crane shot
Crane shot
In filmmaking and video production a crane shot is a shot taken by a camera on a crane. The most obvious uses are to view the actors from above or to move up and away from them, a common way of ending a movie. Some filmmakers like to have the camera on a boom arm just to make it easier to move...
reveals an ostensibly drowned blonde woman in briefs in the bathtub. (Both people have plastic bags over their heads.)
A foot slowly emerges from the spilled peppercorn pot which hops through a hallway. Animals follow in a parallel hallway. They arrive at the foyer of the residence, a naked woman is seen, her head still hidden in the pot. As she removes the pot, the screen goes black. In the darkness, her voice can be heard singing. As she finishes her brief lyric, the black screen is revealed to be in her perspective (point of view shot
Point of view shot
A point of view shot is a short film scene that shows what a character is looking at . It is usually established by being positioned between a shot of a character looking at something, and a shot showing the character's reaction...
) as she lifts the pot from her head, approaches, unlocks, and turns the handle of the door. A wisp of blonde hair is seen on her shoulder.
20101109 (video deleted)
"20101109" continues where the previous video left off. Now outside the apartment, the woman descends flights of a spiral staircase as the theme from "20101104" plays in the background. She stops at a landing where a telephone is mounted to the wall. A printed email is fixed above it. The woman's finger hovers over the text as it comes in and out of focusFocus (optics)
In geometrical optics, a focus, also called an image point, is the point where light rays originating from a point on the object converge. Although the focus is conceptually a point, physically the focus has a spatial extent, called the blur circle. This non-ideal focusing may be caused by...
. The letter, sent by Hillary (YouTube user "Tehhils"), apologizes for not being able to participate in the project and recommends YouTube user "ShootUpTheStation" as a replacement. Although parts of the email are redacted
Sanitization (classified information)
Sanitization is the process of removing sensitive information from a document or other medium, so that it may be distributed to a broader audience. When dealing with classified information, sanitization attempts to reduce the document's classification level, possibly yielding an unclassified...
, ShootUpTheStation's telephone number has been penciled in below his username
User (computing)
A user is an agent, either a human agent or software agent, who uses a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified by a username , screen name , nickname , or handle, which is derived from the identical Citizen's Band radio term.Users are...
. The woman dials the number and twists the phone's cord around her finger as it rings. A man's voice answers, and the woman tells him to turn on his camera. The film switches to the man's low-quality webcam
Webcam
A webcam is a video camera that feeds its images in real time to a computer or computer network, often via USB, ethernet, or Wi-Fi.Their most popular use is the establishment of video links, permitting computers to act as videophones or videoconference stations. This common use as a video camera...
. He's young, blond, facing away from the camera, and speaking on a mobile phone. The latter half of the video is dedicated to their conversation, in which the woman questions the young man about himself, his preferences, and his metaphysical
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
beliefs. The conversation concludes with the woman telling him that he must record his journey to her and that they will meet at the airport.
101112 - 101115-2 and http://towhomitmayconcern.cc/ (videos deleted)
"101112" is the start of a vlogVlog
Video blogging, sometimes shortened to vlogging or vidding or vidblogging is a form of blogging for which the medium is video, and is a form of Web television. Entries often combine embedded video or a video link with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in one take...
style of videos by YouTube user "ShootUpTheStation." The video documents his journey from Germany to Sweden to meet an unknown group of people. He boards a plane at the Berlin Tegel Airport. Upon arriving, he takes an elevator which reads "Våning ett"(Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
for "first floor"). He then boards a car and is driven to what was later identified as the Handen
Handen
Handen is a part of Metropolitan Stockholm, and the seat of Haninge Municipality in Stockholm County in eastern Sweden. It had 11,524 inhabitants in 2003...
Quality Hotel Winn Haninge.
"101112-2" follows the same trend as before, with "ShootUpTheStation" arriving at his hotel, entering his room and reading through an envelope marked with the words, "To whom it may concern". The rest of the video shows what is in the envelope, a piece of paper with an itinerary on it.
Each day is busy, from Friday 12 November to Sunday 14 November. The itinerary is packed with Visitors at 6pm on Friday, visitors at 1pm and 4pm, with 7pm being filled with a 'talk' on Saturday, there is a glimpse at Sunday, but no details. The video finishes here.
"101113" begins with "ShootUpTheStation" answering a ringing phone in his hotel room and telling the speaker that the camera is on. Music begins playing in the background, and there is a knock on the door. He goes to answer it, whilst the camera continues to only film the bed; leaving the viewer to guess what is happening. The sound of plastic and presumably masking tape is heard. Camera flashes are seen and heard as well, presumably for ShootUpTheStation's "funeral" photo. The video ends with a baggy-sleeved arm reaching for the camera's power button.
"101114": A bearded man, his face obscured in post-production, enters ShootUpTheStation's room and briefly teaches him how to do the waltz that takes place in the concert (whilst humming "The Blue Danube
The Blue Danube
The Blue Danube is the common English title of An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314 , a waltz by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, composed in 1866...
") and bow. The lesson complete, the men shake hands and the bearded man departs.
"101115": A man in braces
Suspenders
Suspenders or braces are fabric or leather straps worn over the shoulders to hold up trousers. Straps may be elasticated, either entirely or only at attachment ends and most straps are of woven cloth forming an X or Y shape at the back. Braces are typically attached to trousers with buttons...
, his face obscured in post-production, arrives with the plastic bag holding ShootUpTheStation's concert attire, which he lays out on the man's hotel bed (off-screen) before leaving. After the man leaves, ShootUpTheStation provides a brief look at the dark ensemble.
"http://towhomitmayconcern.cc/": Over the recurring visual of a corkboard to which a cutout phrase ("To Whom It May Concern.") is pinned, and featuring the (slightly different) words "10.11.16 12AM CET IN CONCERT" in pointillism
Pointillism
Pointillism is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of pure color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term Pointillism was first coined by art critics in the late 1880s to ridicule the works...
, the woman's voice speaks: "At 12:01 AM Swedish time we act in concert on the wish to evolve. We will present you with a plausible path available for 6 hours on 'It Is What It Is'."
"101115-2": Uploaded just before midnight CET, it features a static shot of ShootUpTheStation's empty hotel room as he has a brief telephone conversation and someone knocks on his door.
; john
The video begins at the mouth of a creek with a man in underwear and a bag falling from the sky. The man proceeds to run with the bag through various locations, and the video cuts to a scene of JonnaJonna Lee (singer)
Jonna Lee is a singer-songwriter from Linköping, Sweden, currently residing in Stockholm and London, UK.-Early life:Lee was born 1981 in Linköping and grew up in a small Swedish village in the country with her mother...
in a room with plastic sheets and a bed made of rolls of toilet paper. The recurring black dog from other videos runs through a town, the forest from "t" and past a white house. She wears a single terrycloth-like jumpsuit and hood. As the video progresses, she begins to move erotically and dance on the bed while underwear-clad people outside of the room wait to be allowed entry. Eventually she opens the door to allow a man in, and they engage in sexual intercourse, seen through surveillance televisions lining the wall outside of the room. The video ends as the camera pulls back throughout the entire setting, revealing the waiting line of nude people, a change room where white coat hangers litter the room and people are disrobing. Jonna, now only clad in underwear, knots a plastic bag and places it into a hole above a door. The final scene shows a hooded figure picking up a phone while a dialing tone sounds for the remainder of the video. The video ends with the door to the white house closing.
Common elements throughout the series, such as the black dog, people in underwear, and cups of white substance reappear in this video.
The main prop of the video, the toilet paper bed, was used during their first live performance at Way Out West.
clump
"clump" appears to be a continuation of "; john" (the camera is focused on Lee's face while she lies on the toilet paper bed from "; john"). The perspective is shown from above, as if the viewer is above her. Her body moves up and down as if being casually penetrated. When she closes her eyes, images of a woody scenery show a figure with long blonde hair moving through cattails and long grass. A naked Lee later finds the blonde figure midst the foliage and appears to be happy as she caresses the blonde figure's head; she abruptly flees soon after. For the duration of the video's end, the scene in the woods of Lee fleeing are alternated six times with the scenes of Lee on the toilet paper bed.In Concert
| Setlist |
|---|
|
The concert was scheduled to begin at 12:01 AM CET [6 PM EST] on 16 November 2010. A fan website (http://www.iambounty.tk/), provided a countdown clock and allowed fans to live blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
the event. At 12:01 AM CET the concert did not start promptly. The concert began at approximately 12:15 AM CET, with the corkboard date notice being replaced by a streaming Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
video of the concert.
The concert video was 1 hour and 4 minutes in length. After 4 hours the video was removed, despite the assumption that it would remain up for 6 hours (as inferred from the YouTube video "http://towhomitmayconcern.cc/"). Tech-savvy fans downloaded the high-quality streaming FLV as well as ripping the audio from the file. Upon the concert's removal, they uploaded the video and audio to file sharing
File sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
websites (such as MediaFire
MediaFire
MediaFire is a free file and image hosting web site that started in 2006 and is located in Harris County, Texas, United States. The domain mediafire.com attracted almost 60 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com study.- Features :...
) and file hosting services (such as YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
) for those that missed the original broadcast. (An example of a fan effort to disseminate the concert can be found at http://www.iamconcert.com.) 15 hours after the concert ended, the videos setting up the concert ("101112" - "101115-2", "20101001", "20101109", and "http://towhomitmayconcern.cc/") were deleted from the iamamiwhoami YouTube account.
Although the concert appeared to be a live, "one take" tracking shot
Tracking shot
In motion picture terminology, a tracking shot is a segment in which the camera is mounted on a camera dolly, a wheeled platform that is pushed on rails while the picture is being taken...
there are clear areas where cuts where used to edit segments of the concert together. For example, the transition from "n" to "o" occurs by passing by a dark tree in closeup, then cutting to a similar shot of ShootUpTheStation in the "church". The transition from "o" to "13.1.14.4.18.1.7.15.18.1.1110" occurs when the camera zooms in on one of Lee's minions' black shirt, then zooms back out.
On 4 December 2010 the full, unedited audio of the concert was released digitally on Amazon and iTunes titled "In Concert". Segmented tracks of "b", "t", "n", "o", "u-2", "y" and "." also became available alongside the complete audio. (The YouTube video "20101104" contained a lyrical fragment from ".", a new song featured only in "In Concert".)
Video synopsis
In a direct continuation of "101115-2" a white-hooded figure and ShootUpTheStation leaves the hotel. A glimpse of the hooded figure's face reveals it is Jonna Lee. They board a car along with a driver in a ski mask. The interior is taped in plastic and holds instruments for the concert. The camera lingers over figures matching the animals from the Prelude "number" series of videos. Lee sings "u-1", with the backing track playing on the car's speakers as they navigate a highway system.The car arrives at the concert site and the view switches to an exterior video camera placed before the parked car. Lee uses a keyboard to play "b" using a harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
synth
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
. She then exits and continues the song at the boot of the car. On her neck is a strawberry necklace from the Prelude videos.
At the end of "b", Lee takes ShootUpTheStation by the hand, leading him from the car through concert barrier gates. They brave a phalanx of veiled laughing people, while a remix of "Prelude 699130082.451322-5.4.21.3.1.20.9.15.14.1.12" is playing in the background. When they reach a turn in the gates, Lee mimes tracing smoke in the distance, then begins "t" featuring thundering cathedral bells. Behind her, tents light up in the darkness in sync with the song's bassline
Bassline
A bassline is the term used in many styles of popular music, such as jazz, blues, funk, dub and electronic music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass, tuba or keyboard...
. She walks away into the darkness and ShootUpTheStation follows.
At a backlit tree, Lee rests in an over-sized cardboard gown. ShootUpTheStation enters the cardboard gown structure from below and "20101001" plays. Within the gown is a wood. A man holding the lightbulb from "y" lights his way. "n" begins and he comes upon the cardboard puppet from "u-1". Lee, in the distance as her incarnation from "y", with long, flowing blonde hair, awaits him. They waltz and bow, as foreshadowed by "101114", in part to a dissonant
Consonance and dissonance
In music, a consonance is a harmony, chord, or interval considered stable, as opposed to a dissonance , which is considered to be unstable...
electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
solo
Guitar solo
In popular music, a guitar solo is a melodic passage, section, or entire piece of music written for an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. Guitar solos, which often contain varying degrees of improvisation, are used in many styles of popular music such as blues, jazz, rock and metal styles such...
. As the song concludes we see men in briefs miming sex acts on trees.
The song ends and ShootUpTheStation stands alone in front of the hair-clad Lee in a makeshift church within the wood, the stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
windows and rosette
Rose window
A Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in churches of the Gothic architectural style and being divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery...
represented by white paper illuminated from behind. In the middle of the space is a cardboard box. As Lee sings a remix of "o" she sheds her hair suit, revealing a black leotard, fingerless black-lace gloves, and a prominent clerical collar
Clerical collar
A clerical collar is an item of Christian clerical clothing. It is a detachable collar that buttons onto a clergy shirt or rabbat , being fastened by two metal studs, one attached at the front and one at the back to hold the collar to the shirt. The collar closes at the back of the neck, presenting...
at her neck. Lee beckons for ShootUpTheStation to get into the box and he is sealed inside. The song ends and "13.1.14.4.18.1.7.15.18.1.1110" begins as Lee and her minions lay hands
Laying on of hands
The laying on of hands is a religious ritual that accompanies certain religious practices, which are found throughout the world in varying forms....
on the cardboard box coffin. Lee reappears in a dark green bodysuit and lays down on the coffin and an image of ShootUpTheStation is turned over on her chest in a mock-funeral
Funeral
A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
.
Lee gets up and dances to a new interlude as her minions gyrate at the coffin's side. The coffin is led away to a remix of "u-2". She leads the procession out of the forest, beneath the fluorescent lights from "y", and over plank bridges to a road where the car from the intro awaits. A man on the hood is manipulating a synthesizer, and the procession 'rounds the car and reaches the cardboard box fort from "u-2".
The minions load the coffin box into the castle while "15.6.6.9.3.9.14.1.18.21.13.56155" plays in the background. Crosses from "23.5.12.3.15.13.5-8.15.13.5.3383" can be seen in the background. Lee's funeral body suit is removed, revealing a white suit. The minions retreat, closing the fort. The fort is engulfed in flames and she begins singing "y". The camera faces skyward, revealing a wicker mirror suspended by a beam. Its cracked face reflects Lee, lying on knotty pine reminiscent of the lodge seen in "o" and "u-1", caressing herself. The camera returns to Lee. A new bridge
Bridge (music)
In music, especially western popular music, a bridge is a contrasting section which also prepares for the return of the original material section...
plays as she crawls to the site of the burnt fort. She rubs ash on her body and face. She then gathers some of the ash in a piece of aluminum foil. She carries it with her as she sings the lyrics to "9.20.19.13.5.723378" unaccompanied.
Lee buries the aluminum-foil-wrapped ashes using a shovel. She sits at a keyboard nearby, covers herself with black chiffon veil, and sings "." (a complete version of the lyrical fragment found at the end of "20101104") using the keyboard's organ synth as an accompaniment.
After finishing the song she covers the keyboard with the veil and dons a false tail and monkey mask. Lee walks to a table where men dressed in papier-mâché
Papier-mâché
Papier-mâché , alternatively, paper-mache, is a composite material consisting of paper pieces or pulp, sometimes reinforced with textiles, bound with an adhesive, such as glue, starch, or wallpaper paste....
costumes of an owl and a goat are seated. Men dressed as a llama, whale, and bee join them. The owl pours champagne, Lee toasts, and the assembly each make their animal noises from the Prelude videos. When the animal calls are made in order, their vocalizations approximate the pronunciation of the English word "Bounty", thus solving the project's central riddle. The assembly drinks and the concert ends.
Way Out West Festival
| Setlist |
|---|
|
On May 31, 2011, Way Out West Festival
Way Out West Festival
Way Out West is a three-day music festival held in Gothenburg, Sweden, during August that plays host to a variety of popular music artists mainly from the rock, electronic and hip-hop genres...
announced iamamiwhoami as part of the line-up for 2011 to be held during August 11–13, 2011, in Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden. This was their first live concert. The featured a promo image for the concert with a Sweden phone number; calling, it answers with a recording of an acapella song with a background ringing, apparently as a continuation of "; john". This song is currently referred to as "+46 702 888 037".
The concert saw the return of the toilet paper bed and white terrycloth from "; john" and "clump". The concert opened with a screening of a continuation of where the "; john" video left off, with the camera view entering the open door of the white house, and seeing one of the men in underwear placing a plastic bag into a hole in the wall. Three cameramen were seen following Lee throughout the performance, which included explicit symbolism. Concert interludes depicted copulation and fertilization with toilet paper rolls, and Lee's choreography mimicked several sexual and gestational themes. All of iamamiwhoami's released tracks were performed with the exception of "In Concert; .". "u-1" was performed in the soundcheck before the concert. After the festival had finished on Sunday 13th August, the concert promo image on the website towhomitmayconcern.cc was removed and replaced with the black screen they used after the To Whom It May Concern concert.
In other news, why is this on the internet? It sure seems like a waste of fucking time.
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 2010 in music 2010 in music may refer to:*2010 in American music*2010 in Australian music*2010 in British music*2010 in Canadian music*2010 in European music *2010 in Irish music*2010 in Japanese music*2010 in New Zealand music... |
Grammis Grammis The Grammis Awards are the Swedish equivalent of the Grammy Awards. The awards ceremony is generally held each year in February in Stockholm.The awards were established in 1969 and awarded until 1972 when they were cancelled.... |
Innovator of the Year (Årets innovatör) | |
| 2011 | MTV O Music Awards MTV O Music Awards The MTV Online, Open, Ongoing Music Awards, also known as the OMAs, are one of the major annual awards established by MTV to honor the art, creativity, personality and technology of music into the digital space. It uses a "spinoff" of the VMAs, but using online features, such as Twitter, YouTube,... |
Innovative Artist | |
| 2011 | MTV O Music Awards MTV O Music Awards The MTV Online, Open, Ongoing Music Awards, also known as the OMAs, are one of the major annual awards established by MTV to honor the art, creativity, personality and technology of music into the digital space. It uses a "spinoff" of the VMAs, but using online features, such as Twitter, YouTube,... |
Best Web-Born Artist |
Grammis 2011
At the Swedish GrammisGrammis
The Grammis Awards are the Swedish equivalent of the Grammy Awards. The awards ceremony is generally held each year in February in Stockholm.The awards were established in 1969 and awarded until 1972 when they were cancelled....
held on January 2011, iamamiwhoami won the award of "Innovator of the Year" (Årets Innovatör), a newly inaugurated category. An anonymous woman (referred to as 'Key Lady' by the fans as she wore a key necklace) received the award on their behalf and handed to the speaker an envelope with the words "To whom it may concern" taped in front. The content is revealed to be an empty piece of paper. Before leaving, the woman says, "Thank you. That's all I am allowed to say".
MTV O Music Awards 2011
iamamiwhoami was nominated for an MTV O MusicMTV O Music Awards
The MTV Online, Open, Ongoing Music Awards, also known as the OMAs, are one of the major annual awards established by MTV to honor the art, creativity, personality and technology of music into the digital space. It uses a "spinoff" of the VMAs, but using online features, such as Twitter, YouTube,...
award in January 2011 in the "Innovative Artist" category. Fellow nominees included Lady Gaga
Lady GaGa
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
, Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
and Tyler, the Creator
Tyler, the Creator
Tyler Okonma , better known by his stage name Tyler, The Creator, is an American rapper, record producer, music video director, actor, graphic artist and fashion designer from Los Angeles, currently signed to English independent record label XL Recordings and his own record label, Odd Future...
. The award eventually went to Lady Gaga.
The project was nominated again in October 2011 at OMA's second edition, this time in the "Best Web-Born Artist" category. Unfortunately, iamamiwhoami lost the award to Kina Grannis.
Discography
| Title | Release date | Related releases | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Video streaming[A] | Digital download | Release | Digital download | |
| "Prelude 699130082.451322-5.4.21.3.1.20.9.15.14.1.12" | [B] |
— | — | — |
| "9.1.13.669321018" | [B] |
— | — | — |
| "9.20.19.13.5.723378" | [B] |
— | — | — |
| "13.1.14.4.18.1.7.15.18.1.1110" | — | — | — | |
| "15.6.6.9.3.9.14.1.18.21.13.56155" | — | — | — | |
| "23.5.12.3.15.13.5-8.15.13.5.3383" | — | "o" | ||
| "b" | Tara Busch remix | |||
| "o" | Adrian Lux remix | |||
| "u-1" |
|
|||
| "u-2" | ||||
| "n" | Eineinmeier remix | |||
| "t" | Tele Tele remix | |||
| "y" | Zoo Brazil remix | |||
| "20101001" | [C] | — | — | — |
| "20101104" | — | IN CONCERT; "." | ||
| IN CONCERT | [D] |
|
||
| "; john" | "+46 702 888 037"[E] | — | ||
| "clump" | — | — | ||
| ^ All YouTube videos, except where noted. B. ^ 1 2 3 Re-upload date. The original upload of these videos was removed. C. ^ This video was deleted on November 16, 2010. D. ^ Streamed on . E. ^ Phone call stream. |
||||
Other videos
These videos are not musical releases and were deleted on November 16, 2010, the day of the concert.- "20101109"
- "101112"
- "101112-2"
- "101113"
- "101114"
- "101115"
- "http://towhomitmayconcern.cc/"
- "101115-2"
Official app
On the same date as the release of the "b" mp3MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
, 15 March 2010, the official iamamiwhoami iOS app
Application software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
appeared in the iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
sold by iLike, Inc. The app's icon features a question mark on a black background. The main menu features the wood grain album art of u-1 and u-2, with sub menus that lead to videos and music. The video menu contains an RSS feed of the currently available YouTube videos. The music menu contains a full stream of the available songs from iLike.com, the option to purchase individual songs in the iOS's default iTunes store app, and the option to see more of iamamiwhoami's music in the iOS' default iTunes store app (such as the In Concert songs, which are not featured in the official app).
The app is no longer currently available for purchase on iTunes.
External links
- iamamiwhoami at Amazon.comAmazon.comAmazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
- iamamiwhoami at iTunes StoreITunes StoreThe iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...