AUTOMATED

A faint beeping tone in the distance, like an aluminium heartbeat that pulsates louder, and softer, and louder. Sine waves crash onto porous shore as sound meets skin. You bend, summoning synaesthesia, splintering into a galaxy of metallic fragments.

Welcome to AUTOMATED, Honi Soit’s first writing competition with two categories: fiction and non-fiction. This year, we want to see pieces of writing that are futuristic in outlook and experimental in design. We want opinions that raise questions and goosebumps, and creative works that excite and disturb.

░░░ NON-FICTION ░░░
Pieces can be up to 800 words, and must be of an opinion genre with a clear argument. Consider: what is the future of automation in your chosen industry (especially within agriculture, medicine, and engineering) and how will robotics/technology affect it? How can we reconcile the tension between science/progression and traditional models of work? What ethical problems do self-driving cars invoke, and how may we solve them? In what ways do you conform to others? In what ways do you rebel? What kind of automatic behaviours do you find yourself, or others, succumbing to? To what extent does the way our parents view the world become our automatic perception of reality? (and so on, and so on). Use this list as a springboard only — it is by no means exhaustive!

░░░ FICTION ░░░
Pieces can be in any style (including, but not limited to, poetry and prose), and up to 2000 words or 40 lines (depending on medium). For inspiration, see above list. Feel free to interpret the theme as broadly or as specifically as you wish: we want to see work about science, about data mining, about sex robots, but also pieces about love, life, the universe, and everything in between. As long as you can explain the thematic link, you’re sweet.

░░░ SUBMISSION ░░░
You can submit one work per category, for a total of two pieces maximum. Submissions are open NOW (despite what the FB event says) and close 25th August at 11:59PM! Please note that you must be a USyd student to enter this competition. Drop your work here: http://bit.ly/AUTOMATED17

░░░ PRIZE MONEY ░░░
In each category:
First place — $1000
Second place — $500
Third place — $250
People’s choice — $50

Happy writing!