Surveillance by Papercut Magazine

Surveillance

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

Surveillance THE TEAM

artwork and foreword: Kfarrell

MANAGING EDITOR

It’s a tricky thing to be paying attention, even some of the time. And I see eyes everywhere.

Jamall Oluokun DESIGN DIRECTOR Margaret Walsh ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Samayah Jaramillo COPY EDITOR Karlee Kapler

There was a time when my young son would point out every camera he could see when we would go out in public. Now he doesn’t give a shit. I have two phones in my pocket right now that both have cameras, and I am typing on a laptop with a piece of red tape over the little camera eye in front of me. In my wallet, nearly every card has a microchip larger than the logo of the institution it represents as its defining characteristic. The vehicles in my driveway have GPS locators somewhere under their hoods, I looked at a satellite image of my childhood home yesterday. (Actually, I watched some pornography on my personal phone at my workplace, but the satellite image thing kind of fits the topic). In a modern urban setting, it is likely that from the moment you leave the front door of a private residence, all movement in public is captured by some recording device and tracked and logged somewhere. I know my phone listens to me think. My photographs organize themselves, and the algorithm of social media customizes a stream of advertising geared to its idea of what I may be interested in. I read something a few years ago that stated “The amount of information the US government is able to access would require half of its population to process” (Ok, so I made this up too, but I like the way it sounds) I see eyes everywhere. Nobody is paying attention. Enjoy your views.

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

Contents Sinister Intrusion.............................................................. 6 Thought Police................................................................ 10 St. Pauli Madness.............................................................12 An Interview with Gasta................................................ 14 We Are Judging................................................................ 18 Calls & Camera................................................................ 22 Girl on The Run...............................................................24 Mo/fEU..............................................................................34 The Man Behind The Screen........................................ 38 untitled.psd......................................................................46 CorporatNet.....................................................................50 Broadcast.......................................................................... 52 Lights, Camera, Privacy.................................................56

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

Sinister Intrusion artwork and words: Deborah Stevenson

I knew someone who became seriously unwell. She told me one day our phone was tapped by the CIA who were spying on her, listening in on phone calls, plotting against her. She was removed to a place where surveillance and lack of privacy was the norm. This involved physical restraint and shocks to the brain, the seat of the self. This woman was my mother, so I suppose itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s natural for my art to reflect a certain preoccupation with this theme, in particular with imagery pertaining to being female in a world dominated by men and their gaze. I believe a primal need for all humans is the need for privacy. To be with oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s self, and safely so. To me, surveillance connotes sinister intrusion. It is not neutral, it is not innocent. It is intentional and it is dangerous. My personal experience metaphorically applies to everyone everywhere, now more than ever. Are we ever alone? Or is there a drone catching us in its crosshairs? Is there someone hacking our lives? Tracking our movements? Listening in on our conversations? There is overly watching, and there is watching over. The mutability of these two things is confusing. Are we protected or are we targeted? How do we know what to trust? From how far out in space can we be observed? Where is it safe? The nuns told us that God sees and knows everything we do and feel and think. I do not believe in that, but I do know the chilling truth: someone very well might.

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

Of Maier: Open/Close Doors With Portal

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

Thought Police artwork and words: Melanie Garcia

My first encounter with the world of surveillance came from this phrase: “Big Brother is watching you.” The iconic line from George Orwell’s dystopian 1949 novel, 1984, was a seminal reading as an adolescent, in the throes of questioning or trying to make sense of the systems we live in, authority, and our place in the world. While there are those who decry the rise of surveillance by governments, I gently point to the millions of individuals who voluntarily broadcast a daily version of their most intimate lives. Amplified by social media, we’re now living in the age of reality TV, where we can all become our own broadcasters. Where do we go from here? If we’re already so exposed what more can we reveal? Can we be made accountable for our thoughts? Spiritual surveillance? What if there were a "Thought Police?" also described in 1984, as a secret organization that sought to punish "thought crimes". Will a higher force come into existence to assess karmic accountability to our fellow human beings or to the state itself? Is this beyond our reality?

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

St. Pauli Madness: Portraits of mass surveillance artwork and words: AndrĂŠ Boettcher

Hamburgâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s city center is saturated with surveillance cameras. Several are active and several are merely fakes, but both are put in place to make one feel uncomfortable and to instill fear amongst the public. Civilians change their behaviour, seeking approval from these mechanical creatures looming in the dark recesses of the surrounding buildings. This pressure creates an atmosphere of uneasiness, often leading to the loss of free personality development with the public. Today the Reeperbahn is seething with interaction. New tourist restaurant and bars line the streets, and cheap kiosks undercut their prices to attract more tourists. Reeperbahn is also the area in which large cultural events and political demonstrations are held, all aspects adding up to potential conflict. These facts prompted the city and private owners to invest heavily in surveillance. This 930 meter entertainment stretch is stocked with a variety of different security cameras varying in form, size, colour and detail. In preparation for the G20 summit, the presence of police and surveillance cameras were increased in Hamburgâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s city center with only the official cameras marked. One year later after the meeting of the 19 presidents, it cannot be exactly said if this monitoring has been dismantled.

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

An Interview with Gasta artwork and words: Gasta

What are your thoughts about surveillance and privacy? Sharing on social media, tracking, etc.? I've always been an internet enthusiast and an early adopter of social networks. Coming from my experience in newsgroups, bbs, forums, I truly believed in the power of sharing, of coming together, to do something better. And to be fair, we did it. I met incredible people, I learned [how to use] software online, found a job. But, then, something happened. The whole idea of sharing, now, seems to be deeply poisoned. Everything we do online is tracked and sold to unknown third parties that, we have seen in recent present, are going to use it against us. The idea itself of privacy is now radically different from what it was just 10 years ago. Going offline is not just hard. With the internet of things, especially if you live in a city like London, going offline is impossible. There will always be a camera shooting us, someone taking a picture where we are the background. And with more and more face recognition software, we really are tracked every minute. But it doesn't really matter, since we let Facebook long ago look into our secrets and sell them. Our freedom exchanged for a bunch of likes. And that's completely fine for us.

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

How is surveillance handled by your country? Is that different from other parts of the world? How?

What do you want people to see or feel when they view your work?

London is the most surveilled city in the world, boasting 500000 cctv cameras . Every day of our life is recorded by someone. There are 309 cctv cameras in the Oxford Circus tube station alone, and over 10 in a regular bus.

I really hope they just stop for a moment. Our eyes are more and more hungry and our attention span so little. This is why I started to create looping gifs. They seem to lock the viewer for slightly longer than a normal video or still image.

If on one side the idea is to protect the citizens, on the other hand we are constantly scrutinised. According to Big Brother Watch, a non profit organisation, every day our face is seen by 300 cctv cameras.

Did you learn anything working on this project that makes you see the world differently?

How does your work explore the idea of surveillance? I tried to play with the topic of surveillance by creating surreal worlds, a sort of visual metaphor of my increasing fears about how we use social networks and we are constantly checked. Looping animations that look, hopefully, funny but that hide in them a more profound meaning. Facebook as religion, likes/lives/lies that are weights to be lifted daily, hundreds of cctv cameras focusing on absolutely nothing like a bouncing ball, a huge speaker talking too loud on thousands of headless ears, people that are parasites to our brains, Big Brother checking on us (are you happy? are you sad? are you happy now?)

I would say that I feel very close to the theme of the project and it fuelled my creativity. I really wanted to say something, how I feel about this whole mess we are living in at the moment. And to be fair, the outcome is pretty grim (as is this whole "essay", I'm so sorry!). I've recently read a very inspiring and scary book by Adam Greenfield, Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life, in which he thoroughly analyses what kind of world we are shaping for ourselves, how the design is going to affect it and how it will affect the design itself. We still have power to change the course of things. It's just going to be hard and harder.

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

We Are Judging. artwork and words: Ana Padilha

Stalking. Speculating. Flaunting. We want to see you. Face it you want to be seen. As you walk past on the street we build a story in our minds of who you are and your life. You pass by and pretend as if you didn't create this persona that follows you. You want it to appear natural, as if it happened without thought. But we are judging, judging your meticulously planned story. Our use of surveillance can be lethal â&#x20AC;&#x201D; security tapes can be deleted and destroyed, but unfortunately rumours live on between people forever. I want my work to inspire people to build their own story not for others but for themselves. If my work brings discomfort I will know people have recognized the idea that their lives are scripted.

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

Calls & Camera artwork and words: Helene Traxler

Nowadays we use our mobile phones for making calls and taking pictures. Various apps want to access our phone records. Metadata is stored in image files, like the time and date when the picture was taken, the camera settings that have been used, and even the GPS data. Should we find ourselves in a public place, a surveillance camera probably filmed us too. We give so much information away with our everyday movements and activities and get so little in return. I'm critical of this development. We often have no idea how exactly and by whom this information is used. And we certainly don't know what will happen to the collection of our private data in the future. I fear increased surveillance will suppress individuality as the constant fear of being watched will result in self-policing to avoid standing out. We should not allow such a bleak future to become reality, this world needs to be as diverse as possible.

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

Girl on The Run photographer: Heath M. Grout @heathmgrout

styling & design: Nina Echo-Francesca Mohana Calignano @nina_echo creative direction & animation: Agency Nomadic @agency_nomadic makeup: Blair Jaffer @bjaffer

hair: Drew Schaefering @drewschaefering model: Sierra @sierraouslyyyy production: 18 Rabbit NYC

photography: EQ Root Studios

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

Mo/fEU artwork and words: Artemis Papachristou

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

In the beginning humans edited their environment in order to survive. Today humans edit and curate their existence in order to survive socially. We voluntarily put ourselves under surveillance and we love it. However, this is a game of exchange. We show, but we also watch. It is a new form of entertainment as we spend our time curating our activities and watching all the details of people’s lives that we often never meet.

The Mo/fEU [Museum of/for Everyday Use] is a concept of a real-life museum which means it is constructed in real life, for real life. Privacy is public in real- time and we can suppose that only a few would like to experience exposure in these terms. Mo/fEU was an architectural project conceived in 2016 as a Diploma Project in the University of Thessaly (Tutor :Aristides Antonas). It has been exhibited and has received awards.

Instagram is a gallery of our curated lives.

This place is a platform for rethinking P.Bourdieu’s term “habitus”, an alive archive of inhabitation and of the performativity of everyday life.

Instagram is a vanity platform and the “stories” are the extreme of this game. The ephemeral feature of the stories acts as an alibi to the frequency that they are shared. But the greed is later confirmed by the creation of the story “archive”.

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

All the household is organised, presented and named differently as if it was a work of art. Each room is designed with a mechanism that gives an ambiguous experience and creates an uncanny feeling on normal living. At the same time, every function becomes an exhibit. It is a museum where the visitor becomes a user and at the same time an exhibit himself. A place where the distinct animality of the human being is under observation. In this way, it acts as a hub to make us rethink the small mundane acts of our everyday existence and the way we reside today. Its design acts as an ironic comment to the contemporary humanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vanity and the way we overshare their life through social networks. Most of the building is buried and only the entrances and a small but characteristic part of it are apparent at the zero level. All the functions of a home are clichĂŠâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; curated and exhibited in separate glass display units which are accessible only from below after you enter the museum. This indicates its content and concept and it acts as a sample of what follows at the lower level.

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

The Martyrâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Crown is a Leather Boot

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

The Man Behind The Screen artwork and words : David Arms

Militant police and school shooters regularly kill innocent people without consequence. Corporations rape our mother Earth leading to drastic climate change and the disappearance of ever-dwindling natural resources. These are but some of the catastrophic problems that must be addressed immediately or we will all suffer. Yet it is much easier to engulf ourselves in the echo chambers of our minds while ignoring the world as it burns. Big Brother knows this, thus we are sold on prioritizing the curation of our own personalities over the salvation of humanity as a whole. As a result America is full of self-obsessed celebrities in their own tiny worlds. Those who aren’t being killed are suffering beneath a chic facade. After seeing the video of Eric Garner getting choked to death by the NYPD, I was sure we would start to see reform in our country, but sadly it seems we’ve doubled down on escapism. Let us step out from behind the safety of our phones and look into the teary eyes of the abused. Companies are watching our every keystroke and selling this information to advertisers who convince us to buy products that reflect whatever political opinions we have. Too often we gladly ignore the man behind the curtain in favor of a sale or a funny story about a cute dog. Entertainment and social media aren’t inherently evil, but we must remain vigilant against brainwashing and work to figure out what is real and what is fictitious regarding our country’s crimes against humanity. The problems that face our world cannot be swiped away. They will only continue to grow out of control until they are resolved or until they boil over. At the end of the day my hope is to help people break free of the invisible shackles we voluntarily bind ourselves in. There are several billion humans on our Earth, and if we turn our attention toward righting our wrongs we can reverse the damage that has been done and usher in a brighter world. We must arm ourselves with intelligence and take the steps necessary to help our planet and all life upon it. No amount of likes on Facebook will matter when humanity is ripping itself apart.

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

Chatterbox We spend so much of our lives with our faces glued to our phones. Our entire sense of validation is determined by one device. While we can experience tremendous joy by all the likes we receive on social media, we can also be destroyed by other people’s comments. It’s like the old adage “live by the sword, die by the sword” but updated to “live by the phone, die by the phone.

Money Talks Across America innocent black people are regularly gunned down in cold blood. People like Michael Brown are killed on a daily basis and those with the most money are pumping their finances into news stations to push false narratives and discredit victims.

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

Noose Feed Our constant need for entertainment is what got unqualified actors like Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump elected. Our obsession with posting videos and watching TV shows about social issues is what makes the wounds of our world fester. As we scroll through our news feeds, we become more and more calloused until eventually we cease to care. Our problems cannot be swiped away.

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

Ghosts in the Rose Garden In the anime film “Ghost in the Shell,” the hero is a cyborg who questions the nature of her mind, her reality, and her soul. Like the characters in this story who have been brainwashed by governmentrun computer simulations, we must work to figure out what is real and what is fictitious when it comes to our country’s history. What ghosts lay in the White House’s rose Garden?

Raze Awareness It is much easier to take a selfie than to watch the many videos of cops killing innocent people. What we’re doing is showing the blue bloods that they can get away with murder, and if we don’t do something soon then we may be the next victims in an overlooked body cam video.

Rise of the Reich Trump’s election has caused the acceleration of massive storms caused by global warming and the rise of neo-nazis. Sex and carnal desires seem to be more important than addressing these massive issues. People often wonder how it could be possible for a nation to follow Hitler as the Holocaust ravaged Europe. Now we see all the same warning signs being caught on camera, and we just don’t give a fuck.

1984 “1984” is an homage to the George Orwell novel by the same title. Here I’ve chosen John Hurt, who plays the protagonist in the film adaptation of the book, as the main figure. He attempts to draw America’s attention away from social media to focus on social issues. However, in trying to save an elderly woman from being swept away by the new age of constant documentation, he is playing into the media machine and helping to sell the identity of the resistant bohemian to the masses. These are the United States of Facebook, and Mark Zuckerberg can be seen in the lower corner giddy as ever.

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

untitled.psd artwork and words: Mike Voropaev My series of illustrations called untitled.psd is a call to action for citizenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s of the Internet to be more vigilant with their private data and social media activity.

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

CorporateNET artwork and words: Douglas Rainwater

I am lucky (and old enough) to remember when the internet was mostly text and proficiency in using a computer was a prerequisite for getting online. I know it's easy to look back at a bygone era as a sort of mythical time where everything was better, nostalgia is a cruel beast after all, but as far as the internet was concerned, that truly was the case. It wasn't yet a tool for mass surveillance or cynically gamed by corporations for naked profit. Even the quality of arguments seemed to be of a higher standard than the pure nastiness we see today. One actually had to go looking for Nazis, for example, rather than seeing their poisonous ideals infecting everything as seems to be the case right now. For this series, I've tried to illustrate how the internet, once corporations realised its money-making potential, was sold to us on the premise that it would "bring people together" and make the world a better place. But as with all marketing, the reality is often completely different to the product being sold. It is indeed a completely different and altogether nastier place than it was in the early 1990s. This change took place slowly until the advent of the smartphone, which made internet access even easier to obtain. We now carry the internet with us wherever we go and as a result, are "always connected" and have actually invited surveillance into our lives, the dream of every government. Through social media, we are in the midst of quite possibly the largest, most socially acceptable form of addiction humanity has ever seen. We project idealised versions of ourselves; we feel anxious that our lives are not as happy or perfect as the lives which others project, even though we all know, deep down, that those Instagram selfies of us and of them are a lie. At any given time, so long as your phone is on, unscrupulous powers can find you and know how you feel or what you think, since we all voluntarily give away such information on a myriad of social media sites, somehow thinking that the small dopamine hits of "likes" are worth the sacrifices in privacy (and often sanity) we've surrendered.

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

I find it to be no coincidence that as the internet has become more monetised and hypercompetitive, where news outlets are increasingly reliant on clickbait headlines to bring in readers and advertising revenue, the more extreme and divisive voices have won out. Appeals to raw emotion, crude populism and base instincts are in; measured contemplation and analysis of cold, hard facts is now out. The internet is not bringing us together at all. In fact, it is driving humanity into bitterly opposed tribal camps and giving massive platforms to dangerous and unprincipled demagogues all around the world, be it Trump, Erdogan in Turkey, Orban in Hungary and the promoters of Brexit here in the UK. The implications for democracy and the human race as a whole are profound and we are no longer sleepwalking into a dystopia of our own making, we are walking wide-eyed into it. Society seems always on edge, nervous, ill at ease with itself. For many of us who have been on the internet for over 20 years, shutting the whole thing down now seems almost preferable than continuing to live with the monster which we have built.

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

Broadcast artwork and words: Thomcat23

A lot of people have called out the government in respects to erosion of American privacy, but I believe the larger danger is big business and corporations. Governments can be forced to be transparent via the ballot box, but corporations have the luxury of opacity. This opacity can categorize our data and information as trade secret, something the public has no access to. This also goes double for social media. I feel that every creative person that utilizes social media seeks exposure at the knowing sacrifice of privacy. In fact, a creators privacy online is the price of connecting to those corners of support. My work explores all the ways we broadcast and are surveilled in our hyper-connected existence. I want people to feel that surveillance is yet another component in their everyday lives and examine how they â&#x20AC;&#x153;broadcastâ&#x20AC;?.

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

Sometimes we are seen completely by our own doing.

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

Sometimes we creatives give up a bit of our privacy to find an audience for our work. This support can be spotty at best, leaving those that make a living on social media in peril.

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

In a world of eavesdropping drones and mass surveillance technology, what other methods will exist in the future?

Face it, you've checked up on a past friend or lover. We spy by nature, it sparks our curiosity.

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

Lights, Camera, Privacy! Actress, Artist & Model Stephanie Corneliussen Chats with Papercut about Privacy & Celebrity

PAPERCUT: So we're gonna start this Interview the way most people start a conversation on surveillance....Google. lol. More specifically Youtube (owned by Google). I found a clip of you talking about a Twitter experience where someone was telling people to burn you. Tell me more about this story. What happened? talk about what you did and did you ever hear from the person again? STEPHANIE: In all fairness, and by no means am I condoning any incitement of bodily harm — but I do believe it was the poor chaps attempt of ‘sass’. We don’t call it that today, we call it trolling. However, morbid and misguided humor aside, that incident turned out to be a pivotal point in my online experience. The story goes: At the height of Mr. Robots’ season one, I decided to ‘live tweet’ with the fans during an episode. The “chat” if you will, offered exciting observations from fans and at one point a user directed me to this guy’s Twitter page, with the ominous message: “whoa, you should really see this.” 2 glasses of Chardonnay in, my interest peaked and I landed on his face- and nameless page, filled with unaddressed threads of threats toward my person. In my time on social media I’ve never experienced any ill-will. This was a first and while I could’ve chosen to ignore it, I found myself engrossed in what best be described as a ‘massacre fantasy list’ toward myself and other celebrities, as I wasn’t the only female he wished to burn at the stake. I followed protocol and reported him to Twitter. Alas, I couldn’t leave it be; his iniquitous display invoked my inner vigilante and the wine - my secret alacrity of a good scuff. I went in deep, scrolling through messages and media posts dating over a year back until I found a screenshot of a tidbit of personal information. Now, the internet is a marvelously scary place for digging up information and within minutes I knew... pretty much everything about him. Including his home address. Now that I had gone from witch to troll, I produced a photo of his residence by help of our friends at google earth and sent it to him. From my account. No response, however I was swiftly blocked, but to no prevail as moments later Twitter deactivated his account. Fairytale ending. Then reality followed, and I spoke of the incident on Chelsea Handler, which resulted in me obtaining collective amnesty by trolls online. I can’t help but to wonder how different my social media experience had been, had I not acted as I did. photography: Christian Blanchard styling: Mike Adler

makeup: Fidel Gonzalez hair: Di Dusting

model: Stephanie Cornelissuen manicurist: Chi Phans

photo assistants: Sam Sherdel and FS Fahad

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

PAPERCUT: You also deactivated your Twitter account, which is something that many celebrities do. Why did you decide to deactivate your account? Was this to maintain more privacy or to avoid the trolls? Both? Do you intend to go back on it? STEPHANIE: Neither. Twitter, which I believe was intended to function as a global scale communication service, has become less of that and more of an absolute cesspool of unfounded opinions. Whether you choose to apply the available measures of protection or not, the negativity still manages to seep through. In your feed, in comments, in a subliminal margin that your conscious mind may choose to ignore, but your subconscious mind still registers. Twitter was affecting my mental health. I’ve been happy without it, I don’t miss it and I don’t see myself going back. PAPERCUT: Let's talk about Celebrity Culture. On the one hand, every actor when they start out wants so badly to be famous, but then when it hits, they realize the first downside is the lack of privacy. Paparazzi follows you everywhere and strangers are constantly capturing your every move. What are your thoughts on this? How have you dealt with this? And have your thoughts evolved since you started as an actor till now? STEPHANIE: Whether actors want so badly to be famous, I think is a broad generalization. Artists want to be recognized for their talents. Fame follows. My exposure to celebrity culture has been modest possibly a byproduct of portraying stark raving mad characters. Even though social media today offers a unique insight into the actors lives, people still fall in love with the character; the first exposure. I find that people are generally reserved when they encounter me, and approach me slightly differently than they do my colleagues. I’ve only had good experiences. Same goes for the paparazzi. But ultimately, being Danish, I figure that my general conduct and self permitted exposure to that side of the business may be slightly different as well. I have no interest in being page six news. PAPERCUT: Following this up, and this goes back to your super stalker who wanted to burn you, while it does seem like we're always being watched, it also feels like we don't we care? We all post on social media, wear tracking devices, etc. Having played a great role on the Surveillance themed Mr. Robot, where do you stand on the privacy vs. security argument and why? STEPHANIE: The current discussions about “privacy vs. security” are all social media related – and while Mr. Robot is about hacking and intrusion, the concept of privacy really deserves a broader perspective.

Before the internet and social media, it pertained to privacy of physical letters, public records and personal information being kept secure and only police/federal institutions could access those databases by court order. No private corporation nor individual could do that. Now, with a digital infrastructure it’s so easy to access information with no real cost attached, and collect enormous amounts of data. The pre-Internet legislations still apply to both privacy and security in our digital age with regards to emails, public records etc. but the information or data you willingly put forth, is now being recorded by private corporations by use of algorithms and AI; your logging traffic, your conduct, what you search for, read, buy, and even review and comment on – it is all available to someone and sold for different purposes, to someone else. It’s become big business. Advertising business. And while you can call this kind of advertising, with the cookies and the tracking, part of the new digital norm, you have to realize that you are in fact, permitting it yourself. Privacy on the internet is an illusion. Privacy is now a question of trust in those who “own” your personal information and all the data tracks you leave behind and ultimately your concern should be, what these “owners” do with it. With the recent scandal surrounding Cambridge Analytica and Facebook, it seems that they do whatever they want and for any purpose like influencing politics in the US election and UK’s Brexit campaign. So who are these “owners”, these corporations and does the legislation that regulate these services in the analogue world even apply to social media and global networks? Had it been the government running these services, we could easily have had a democratic and ideological political debate about privacy and surveillance, but it’s not, so what kind of debate should we be having? And with whom? The really scary thought is that without forming an understanding on digital privacy and security, how will we handle what comes next? For arguments sake, let’s turn to the subject of genetics and robotics, what if you combine those ever popular DNA tests, where we all so willingly offer up our genetic codes and cross reference it with our digital footprints and observable behavior? That’s your entire person recorded. What privacy or security protects that? Just like the subject of climate change, this concern requires a collective global effort and participation.

The dictionary will tell you that privacy is the right to protect yourself and your personal life from others prying on you; this was a constitutional right long before the internet. Basically, the very foundation of democracy along with free speech and other privileges any citizen in a free country have. PAPERCUTMAG.COM

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

PAPERCUT: Last question on this topic. Europe has a very different view on privacy and security than America does. You were of course born in Denmark, so what are the big differences between your experiences in the US vs Europe. What are the positives and negatives of each.

PAPERCUT: Let's switch it up. Lol. You were recently named a rising talent to watch. All, which is awesome to get industry recognition, but personally how would you assess your career so far. I. What have you enjoyed the most, highlights, lowlights, what's your next challenge.

STEPHANIE: The EU recently passed a law on the right to privacy. The short version is: who owns the data and what can the data be used for.

STEPHANIE: I’m a “big dreams, low expectations” kinda gal. Well, that’s not entirely true, rather I’d say: “big dreams, realistic expectations.” I put in hard work and as the saying goes, it’s supposed to pay off — and it is. By my own standards I’m quite chuffed with my career. I’ve achieved my personal goals, and everything from this point on is pure indulgence. I’ve enjoyed all of it so far, and I don’t think there’s been any highs or lows thus far, simply ripples along the path. For what’s next, I have my eye on creating.

It’s called the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and stipulates that all corporations and institutions on the internet must actively inform the user of the purpose of cookies and data collecting, and must also inform how they intend to contain and protect the use of personal information. Now, this entails that any individual can ask to see what data they have stored and can ask the institutions\ corporations to delete it. Ultimately, it also means that the individual can trade the data for money, meaning: you can actually be paid for the use of your personal information, if it’s sold on. Transparency is a particular difference between Europe and the US. That applies to more areas, such as news and media. Denmarks public service media is both well trusted and transparent, as well as most commercial media outlets and we are neither naive nor Machiavellian as many other regions in the world. In my country, we fact check everything. But we also use social media and thus fall subject to fake news and trolling. However, I believe that Danes are quite capable of distinguishing between real and fake. It’s part of our cultural heritage and our education system being a modern social welfare state with free education and free health care.

STEPHANIE: As an actor it doesn’t change much, perhaps only in the sense of more outlets, more work. However as an entrepreneur and creative developer I too, want a piece of the cake. I started developing creative content late last year and I’m hoping to see it come to fruition in the early 2020’s.

Though I hold a green card to work and live in the US, I am actually a guest in your country – and being Danish I am often surprised of how many differences there are. While personal success and capital is regarded much higher in the US and the cost of living is much lower, much of your agenda on basic human rights and the notion of personal freedom, are already implemented in our daily behavior in Denmark, and the US seem twenty or thirty years behind our notion of social rights. Politics differ as well.

STEPHANIE: Well, you can swear on one and not on the other - but besides that I didn’t experience any ‘worth mentioning’ differences. I just focused on the work. The only other difference I know about cable and network is the difference in distribution. Ha.

A few examples of differences: The average college student is paid approximately $1000 a month to attend University in Denmark, with free tuition. The average American college student, whether public or private pays between $3500-$32,000 to obtain an education. We have 7 major political parties in Denmark representing 5.7 million people. There are 2 major political parties representing 328 million people in the US. According to recent data, the average cost of a hospital stay in the US exceeds that of $10,000. In Denmark that amount would be $0.

The landscape of TV has changed so dramatically over the last few years with everyone including the major tech companies getting into the game. How has this shift effected the things you choose to persue if at all and or what opportunities do you see?

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

PAPERCUT: You done both Network TV with appearances on the CW and ABC, as well as on cable with Mr. Robot. Ultimately the type of show, set, crew, etc. will determine the experience, but we're there any key differences you noticed between doing Network vs Cable?

PAPERCUTMAG.COM

PAPERCUT: You have played a number of mysterious roles. What are the types of roles that get you excited? STEPHANIE: Great writing and great storytelling gets me excited. The character can be something completely different from what I’d usually find intriguing, if the writing and world surrounding her is exceptional.

Now Let's have some fun. Worst Audition? My very first audition on tape. The script stated: “she falls to her knees” while delivering the lines, and so I did - dropping 3 feet under the camera setting, obliviously continuing the scene until the Casting Director just started hysterically laughing. I was so embarrassed.

As an actor, your job is to portray any given character withholding your own agenda. The choices that are created for that character are set and it’s your task to bring that person to life whether you “like” them or not. It’s not your place to judge - however, great writing can render that initial disconnect moot. If I get to choose, I prefer to portray characters that exude qualities of my own personal adornment: strong, independent, fearless female characters. With that said, there’s a lot of us, actors that is, and sometimes you have to take on whatever is available to you. It is just a job.

Memorable Onset Flub (film or modeling)? I’ve managed to split my pants on 3 separate occasions.

PAPERCUT: Staying on this topic, what do you think was your most challenging role thus far? How did you prepare for it and what was your process for getting into character?

Favorite DC Comics Character? Animal Man (I hope they make an Animal Woman)

STEPHANIE: I haven’t portrayed her yet, but I have encountered a few characters that were so unlike myself, that the lack of common ground made the process so much longer. A relatable character is always easier to decipher. It’s hard to know someone you’ve never met. Luckily the world is full of different personalities, and I’m not opposed to “borrow” characteristics from real people when I prepare for a role. PAPERCUT: You're not "just" an actor, but started out as a model, as well as possess skills in other creative genres such as graphic design and painting. How has each discipline defined your current creative identity? STEPHANIE: An easy way to describe myself is: I’m good at all things creative - I suck at all things sport. My creativity is a dominant instrument in my existence, I get inspired by even the most insignificant notion. It doesn’t define my identity, it’s a very big part of my identity. I draw, write, paint daily and I feel lost if I’m put in situations where I can’t draw on my imagination. It’s a tool that keeps me grounded, while offering great relief.

Favorite Thing about Living LA? The weather. Worst Thing About LA? The traffic. What do you miss most About Denmark? My family. And the food. Dogs or Cats? Both.

Dream Role? Anything Tarantino.

Join the Conversation @papercutmag

artwork: Peter Kurdulija

PAPERCUTMAG.COM