We want to discover meaningful, creative, original work about:
The importance of names, labels, and titles. What does the factor of a title add to a body of work? Are names significant at all, or are they simply words we respond to when we’re called? Do they influence a person and their self-perception or the way others perceive them?)
Of art, of things we create, of one’s self.
How do names, labels, and identification influence language? How do they affect the way we speak to one another? Language began because people needed ways to identify things, people, and ideas between one another — would effective communication or language itself even be possible without names and labels?
How does a person’s name influence their self-view and self-worth? Does it affect that at all? How does a person’s name — the way it’s spelled, its cultural origins, its unconventionality, whether it’s a typically male or female name — affect the way they are treated by others before their qualifications are known, their works are read, or their faces are even seen?
What if we lived in a world where there were no names attached to anything – to people, to animals, to items, to places? To feelings? A world where everything and everyone is nameless? How would that look to you? How would that make you feel?
Try writing a piece where you don’t provide names for anything or anyone. Strengthen your descriptive imagery muscles and see what kind of piece you end up with when you challenge the boundaries of identification.
Like the unconventional challenge we’re employing in this magazine, what if art and works in general were never credited to the person who created it? Are you the kind of person who demands the attention that comes along with a work that gains traction, or do you tend to shy away in fear of the spotlight? Are you more or less comfortable with having your name attached to your work?
Does the idea of sharing your work under your real name scare or intimidate you at all? Why do you think there is so much pressure behind publishing work when your name is attached to it? What could possibly be affected or go wrong? What could go right?
Note from the Editorial Director: We at Superfan Magazine encourage you to NOT simply create/write pieces that are direct responses to the questions above. These prompts are provided in order to assist in the brainstorming process and inspire original works that align with or challenge the topics included in our theme (see listed above), in a philosophical and/or rhetorical manner which evokes critical thought.
