Our Big Damn Mission Statement
When the world looks bleak, when our future seems painfully uncertain, when reality is grim and awful and full of doubt – it’s hard to take entertainment seriously.
What’s the point of talking about movies and video games and comic books when the world around you is falling apart? Who can waste energy on storybook villains when the real world is falling to real ones as you watch?
Art, in its truest sense, is exactly how we face such doubt and fear.
Every imagined thing we shape and create, including the things that others make that shape us, is a way of making sense of the world around us. Just as we are the product of the lives we’ve lived, so is the art we release into the world. Every creative thing is a political statement; every piece of fiction a way of shaping the world. Reflecting on that is important, it is core to being human, it is the way we see ourselves, and the world around us, and it is how we decide who we want to be.
We tell stories of brave rebels and just causes, and we want to rebel. We tell stories of tyrants and how they fall, and we look up to see the teetering giants in our own world.
We do not just retreat into fantasy, we regroup there.
And that’s also why representation matters. If we are a cacophony of voices, it is only because we haven’t made enough room for everyone to be heard. Every story is interesting because of the storyteller, and if we’re really going to use art as a platform for examining our humanity, we must embrace all the wonderful forms humanity takes. We must be the voice for the voiceless, especially over the next four years when the voiceless are most at the risk of being drowned out.
This is a time of strife and turmoil, and so the art we create will be more important. They joy we take in it will be more significant. The sound of it will carry further.
Non-Productive has always been a difficult thing to describe. It has changed a lot over the last twenty-years, but the core has always been the same, really. It is a place for people to help each other create.
It is a place where passion is rewarded with access and support, a community where we help each other grow into the people we want to be.
At first this simply took the form of teamwork on projects and the ability to publish work where other avenues were unreachable – but as it has become easier for anyone to reach out across the world all by themselves – NonPro has become more about the community of builders and not just their tools. It takes more than internet access and a username to become something greater than yourself – it takes support from those that think your voice is something valuable and worth listening to.
So, with that, we at Non-Productive.com recommit ourselves to doing what we’ve always done; provide a voice for those that otherwise might not be heard. And we want to hear from you – we want to help you speak your heart, explore your world, and topple the tyrants that threaten you, any way we can.
Our studio door is always open.
Frank Hablawi and the NonPro Team.