aespa’s Virtual Companion nævis Makes Her Solo Debut With Digital Single “Done”

nævis, a virtual character from aespa’s fictional universe, has ventured outside of KWANGYA to create music of her own. She released her debut single “Done” on September 10. Dubbed by SM Entertainment as an “Artificial Emotional Intelligence Artist” (AEI), nævis is the first virtual artist produced by the company.

Who is nævis?

nævis has starred as a prominent character in aespa’s fictional storyline since 2020, the group’s debut year. nævis serves as the doorkeeper between the real world and the digital KWANGYA, the vast wilderness of the Internet. She helps aespa and æ-æspa, the group’s virtual alter egos, connect and enter KWANGYA to defeat the Black Mamba, a sinister entity who detaches the two worlds. After Black Mamba’s demise, nævis makes her debut in the real world.

SM Entertainment originally planned for nævis to debut solo in March 2023. She even addressed audiences directly in the company’s 3.0 Global Expansion & Investment Strategy video. However, the debut’s delay meant that aespa’s “Welcome to MY World (feat. nævis)” in May 2023 served as the first introduction to nævis as a music artist. Winter told The Korea Herald the song originally belonged to nævis with aespa acting as the featured artist. nævis finally unveiled her solo debut song in June 2024 when she sang “Done” as a special guest during aespa’s tour, SYNK: PARALLEL LINE.

“Done”

Written and composed by Swedish singer-songwriter Jens Duvsjö (also known as Duvchi), Icelandic songwriter Alma Goodman, and Icelandic singer-songwriter Klara Elias, “Done” depicts nævis’s journey into the real world. The instrumental’s hollow feel and subdued percussion allows nævis’s AI-produced vocals to fill the track.. The all-English lyrics tell of nævis’s resilience after facing the Black Mamba’s wrath. She is “done” with the lies that say otherwise. Given that nævis sacrificed herself and later resurfaced, the lyrics reflect her coming back like a “phoenix rising from the dust.”

The music video incorporates multiple nævis designs including a 3D human-like form, a 3D cartoonish form, and a 2D chibi-style form. She swaps between these manifestations as she traverses the digital and physical realms, transitioning between screens like LED signs. The video is not without an aespa reference, as nævis passes by a bus stop advertisement showing a recent concept photo from aespa’s Armageddon album. The music video featured work from multiple organizations, including American creative technology company GIANTSTEP Studios (who previously created æ-æspa using VFX) and Japanese visual design company inbetween, who directed the video’s computer graphics (CG).

How nævis Operates as an Artist

SM Entertainment manages nævis under its Virtual Artist/IP Production Center, a collection of labels focused on artists like her. The company’s sublabel Studio Realife (originally launched as Studio Kwangya in 2022) and its subsidiary post-production company Studio Clon help manage various operations including visual effects (VFX), virtual reality (VR), and AI. SM Entertainment also partnered with South Korea’s third-largest telecom provider, LG U+, this August to finally bring nævis to life. LG U+’s generative AI model ixi-GEN, which rolled out in June, will create promotional material related to nævis.

According to reports from 2023, SM Entertainment created her voice through synthesizing clips from 12 voice actors. Though specifics about whose voices helped shape nævis are still unknown, I personally think four of those must come from the aespa members. All these factors place her debut in a unique spot in the midst of other virtual debuts. Virtual artists like VTuber-turned-soloist APOKI, League of Legends-based girl group K/DA, motion capture-assisted boy group PLAVE—animated characters whose voices come from real-life singers—and AI artists like girl group SYNDI8 from HYBE subsidiary Supertone—whose voices come from a “fusion of voice AI technologies”—came before her. nævis is, however, the first to originate from a storyline associated with a real-life K-Pop group.