The future scenarios in the works of Nina E. Schönefeld are intricately linked to the current political and social climate. In projects like #femaleheroes and #hackerontherun she tells stories of politically motivated hackers and environmental activists. In her work, Schönefeld constructs worlds where people are forced to fight for basic democratic rights and sheer survival, playing with stereotypical gender depictions and placing superheroines at the centre of the action. Her ongoing project #darkconspiracytheories deals with stories of politically motivated hackers, investigative journalists, environmental activists, disaster researchers, secret service members, survival specialists and heroines in male dominated fields. Schönefeld is particularly interested in dramatic escape stories like the ones of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden and in conspiracy theories where the secret service is involved… topics that are explosive and omnipresent in today’s media. Schönefeld’s stories imagine a world where, due to drastic changes, we need to fight for our democratic rights and survival. She plays with stereotypes and creates female hero characters who are able to fly helicopters, hack into highly secured systems of secret services and who will change their identities and leave their former lives if they have to…