The cyborg cockroaches sent into earthquake rubble

Work requirements

Details

ASK: one scene of living insects carrying sensors into a collapsed building. FACT (locked): 10 sensor-carrying cyborg cockroaches were deployed in Myanmar on 30 March 2025, two days after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake, reaching spaces no machine or dog enters. Separately, an AI line now fits one backpack to a living roach in 1 minute 8 seconds. Source: NTU Singapore, 2025. BEAT: the smallest first responders - photojournalistic weight, never grim. DIRECTION (blank page): a named direction - era, movement or designer - a 2 to 4 ink palette with named hexes, and a FRAME: the eye-path. FOCAL: ten across the slab - ten partial views, no leader, a picture of the void no single roach could make. Scale each so its gap reads impassable. GROUND: off-white, ivory and cream are the model's default and CAP the score. Commit to a ground that is not off-white. SPACE: at least 40 percent stays quiet ground; compose the emptiness. Filled corner to corner CAPS, however good the drawing. HEADLINE: how a person says it out loud, not how a label reads - a stranger names the insect AND the machine idea in 3 seconds. If it sounds like a caption or product feature, redo it. VOICE: one named register, in notes. CARE: deployment and the assembly line are two separate projects; keep them apart. A clearly-labelled inset of the line is allowed, not blended in. Say field-tested, never proven rescue. TEXT: 1 headline, up to 4 labels. STANDARD (detail in INSECTS-MAKER-GUIDE.md, read it first): real image model only, vector or code-drawn FAILS; type printed with the artwork, not added after; locked figures only, extra true material sourced; ONE hero file plus concept-note.md and sources.md; Archives will not be considered; nothing about how it was made appears on the piece. JUDGED: wow, subject, surprise, craft. SURPRISE ME: one thing we did not ask for. NOT THIS: a war zone; suffering, not rescue.