Youareareyouwhoareyou… Jonna Lee?
In the past two months, seven clips have appeared on YouTube under a mysterious account titled iamamiwhoami. Two days ago, the first full-length music video appeared – and many are claiming that, based on a few clues in the video, the identity of the author (widely rumored to be Goldfrapp, Trent Reznor, Lykke Li, Lady Gaga, The Knife and, seriously, Christina Aguilera) has finally been uncovered. But first, a bit of background by Leila Brillson to underscore the sheer amount of gematrical/Fortean weirdness packed into this haunting viral endeavor:
In December, a 55-second clip of a hyper-saturated, eerie (Scandinavian?) forest appeared on YouTube. No information was given, just the title “Prelude 699130082.451322-5.4.21.3.1.20.9.15.14.1.12.” The set of numbers following the dash, when matched to their alphabetical correspondents, spell “Educational.”
A few weeks later, a second video emerged, with a dirt-covered blonde girl seductively licking trees to a slow, driving electronic beat – the message this time, “Its Me.” Each video ended with the outline of an animal: a goat and an owl, respectively. The next video, accompanied by a funkier and more cheerful song, featured the painted girl again, up-close, with freakishly large eyes… this time, it spelled “Mandragora.”
The next video (“Officinarum”) increased the count to five (the featured animals, at that point, comprised of a goat, owl, whale, bee and llama). Then, on Friday, [James Montgomery, a music editor] received a package from a messenger service. “It was a thin, brown envelope with my name and floor typed on the front, and no return address.” Inside was a strand of hair from the blonde wig, some bits of wood, and what Montgomery calls a codex.
The project is not without a sense of humor. Each of the videos has a hyperlink in its description to another random but zoologically relevant YouTube clip – Spit On by a Lllama, Screaming Monkeys, Bumble Bee on a Sunflower, to name a few. The new music video, which you can see below, links to this terrifying monstrosity.
So, yes! Now that the new music video has been posted, people have been started putting together the pieces. The most compelling evidence is here – while it does take a bit of magic out of the whole thing, it’s an impressive piece of internet sleuthing.
Yep, she’s a weird one. Please, please let it be her, and not some overproduced pop star. I mean, look at what she did to Nitzer Ebb. Jonna, if this is you, you have arrived!
March 17th, 2010 at 8:00 am
This has been the only viral campaign I found genuinely fun. Most of the others tend to be obnoxiously long hide & go seek styled games. This was so beautifully done and relatively simple. The videos are an insane level of eye candy but it was all kept so focused with just the right amount of baiting. Loved it.
The guessing game did go in just about every direction. I thought it was Little Boots at one point due to one shot of the mystery woman’s teeth. That’s how insane it got, one was debating about who’s teeth it could be!
The more obvious choices seem too soon given what most of those artists are currently up to.
The evidence IS pretty strong though about Jonna. The physical features seem so dead on. If it is indeed her then the campaign worked since it leads to the next obvious question…who is Jonna Lee?
March 17th, 2010 at 11:36 am
I really hoped it was Lily Chou-Chou, come from the ether to save humanity.
March 17th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Reminiscent of William Gibson’s “Pattern Recognition”, the plot deals with the characters trying to track down the source of mysterious videos posted online, with some corporate espionage thrown in because of the marketing potential after the videos gain a following. The 2003 novel was slightly ahead of it’s time. Wish I had of heard about the virals when they started up, thanks for this post.
March 17th, 2010 at 6:22 pm
@plumppeach I’ve never heard of her before. AMAZING! Thank you for that. She & Jonna should join forces.
@ArtistByDay True, he is always ahead of his time. Cannot *wait* for Zero Future.
@Tequila That’s a very good point. Indie? Are there forces at work here that we don’t know about?
March 25th, 2010 at 10:10 am
i was thinking it was Katie Jane Garside for a while- sounded a little similar to the stuff she did for Ruby Throat. I sincerely hope that she doesn’t come out of making all these beautiful videos only to deliver more pop crap (not digging on her older stuff).