Literary Talk with Julia Zolotova: Who’s Watching When You’re Alone?

Here's a test: Close your eyes and picture yourself in a completely private moment. No cameras, no one watching. Just you, alone.
Notice what you're wearing. How you're standing. Your expression.
You're still performing, aren't you? Even in imagination, you can't access an unperformed version of yourself.

Join me for an evening exploring what happens when you become your own constant audience. I'm writing Project Mirror, a novel where people's faces get software updates, but the real question isn't technological. It's this: what happens when there's no "backstage" anymore because you've internalised the scrutiny?

We'll sit with genuinely difficult questions: Do you have a "phone face"? Can you remember the last time you did something with zero possibility of it becoming content? At what point does self-improvement become self-erasure?

I'll read a scene where someone realizes they can't remember what their face looked like before their employer "enhanced" it. Then we do an uncomfortable exercise: share the last thing you did that absolutely no one could ever know about. Most people can't think of anything.

This isn't about solutions or reassurance. This is about admitting something feels fundamentally wrong about how we exist now, and trying to articulate what.

Come ready for genuine discomfort and honest conversation.