Multi-genre artist Jagwar Twin releases his second album, 33, on 30th September. Ahead of its launch, he has created an intricate parallel (virtual) world and a parallel version of himself.
He is highly interested in the intersection of technology and art, especially how they shape and direct each other. “Technology and art have always been deeply intertwined,” he says. “Art has historically used the technology of the time as the vehicle to tell a story.”
As both a comment and an attack on influencer culture, he says he has uploaded his consciousness to the internet (stay with us here).
“Each step along the way took fans on an immersive digital journey as the AI version of Jagwar Twin took form, culminating in the creation of Jagwar Twin’s digital twin AI named SARAVI who used her power to build a Metaverse called the Hall of Mirrors,” runs the press statement. “This Web3 experience allows fans to immerse themselves inside a universe of Jagwar Twin’s creation, discovering and unlocking artifacts of the Jagwar Twin story that fans can collect as NFTs.”
SARVI has slotted herself into Jagwar Twin’s Twitter account as a bot and is answering questions whenever they are directed at her.
In order to fully enter the Hall Of Mirrors metaverse, fans need to have a crypto-wallet and hold a Crown NFT in that wallet (or mint a Crown NFT for free before proceeding).
There is also a manifesto on the site that outlines his vision. He talks of information overload leading to mounting confusion, saying that to succeed in the social media-driven world, one must become an influencer, something he claims to have singularly failed at. But the uploading of his consciousness (explored across long Twitter threads) forms part of his pushback.
This is perhaps one of the most intellectually involved campaigns we have ever seen (and we will happily admit some of it goes way over our heads). As such, it requires a huge amount of buy-in from fans to follow the twists and turns and embrace the convoluted nature of the overarching ideas.
It will probably confuse as many people as it enlightens, but that is not necessarily a failure.
The best music creates an entire and immersive world for fans to enter into. This is an idea that Jagwar Twin most definitely runs with here to try and make it all relevant in a Web3 context.
