iamamiwhoami
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On 4 December 2009, a surreal clip less than a minute long appeared on YouTube submitted by iamamiwhoami.[1] A second appeared and then a third. By then, Chris Cantalini and MTV writer James Montgomery picked up on the clips fueling speculation that had been building in blogs.[2][3]The clip has gone viral.[4]
The case
To date, iamamiwhoami has released seven short videos, the first six videos featuring a provocative slime-covered girl and, as Montgomery says, "a dendrophiliac’s wet dream, loaded with images of a mud-smeared woman licking a tree and some strangely sexualized sap."[2]
The music is a compelling mix of alternative rock, industrial rock, trance music and dubstep though the woman's voice is distorted and or muted at points in each video. They are believed to be part of a viral marketing campaign. The seventh video features a woman covered in plastic from head to toe playing the electric organ.
The clues
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", and "officinarum". Mandragora officinarum is the mandrake root, particularly when used for psychedelic purposes. [5]
In each of the first six clips there is a picture of an animal. A goat, an owl, a whale, a bee, a llama, and a monkey. After previously blogging about the anonymous clips MTV writer James Montgomery received a package by messenger with a lock of blond hair, a piece of bark, and a pictogram of the six animals with the question "says what?"[2], it is however, still unproven that the sender of the package is the same as the person behind the clips.
Furthering the mystery; the sixth clip ends with the woman in the video whispering "Why" or "Y"[5].
The seventh clip was posted without the mysterious coded numbers as previous clips were and is instead simply titled "b". This video features a woman wrapped in plastic, watched over by three men. Unlike the others, it does not include an animal illustration at the end or a numeric code though there is a cat, or possibly six cats, in the video.
The clips
In order, the clips with titles and associated animal are:[5]
- Prelude 699130082.451322-5.4.21.3.1.20.9.15.14.1.12 (goat)
- 9.1.13.669321018 (owl)
- 9.20.19.13.5.723378 (whale)
- 13.1.14.4.18.1.7.15.18.1.1110 (bee)
- 15.6.6.9.3.9.14.1.18.21.13.56155 (llama)
- 23.5.12.3.15.13.5-8.15.13.5.3383 (monkey)
- b
The suspects
Much speculation has focused on the funding and resources behind the video clips. Blogs have focused on Trent Reznor, Little Boots, The Knife, especially Karin Dreijer Andersson, Goldfrapp, Christina Aguilera, Lady GaGa, and The Golden Filter. Some of them denied their involvement [6]. As of March 2010, no one has clearly been identified with the project. Many have begun to focus on Jonna Lee though in an email to MTV, Jamie Jaffe, who works for her North American management team, Philadelphonic stated "If Jonna is involved in this, we have no knowledge of such".
References
- ^ "iamamiwhoami". YouTube. 2009-12-04. Retrieved 2010-03-15.
- ^ a b c Who's Behind 'Iamamiwhoami' Viral Clips?
- ^ Gorilla vs Bear– iamamiwhoami
- ^ The Times Online, by Priya Elan
- ^ a b c Musical Mystery
- ^ Trent Reznor denies connection to iamamiwhoami videos
External links
- "iamamiwhoami". YouTube. 2009-12-04. Retrieved 2010-03-15.