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Bugs Bugs Bugs: Scrappy Scenographies & Junk Puppets
Camden Schools Art Biennale, 2026
A drop in workshop for all ages celebrating insects, ecosystems and scrappy making. Wood offcuts gathered from furniture makers around London become loose parts for imagining and building bug puppets, whilst a forest floor collage forms a backdrop for enacting their wriggly, squigly and slimy worlds.
These scraps of wood were once part of a forest, woodland or other landscape full of alive creatures - how can imaginative detrivorous making help us revalue scrap materials as full of lively potential? Things that might have gone in the bin can have an inspiring life of their own.
Thank you to Jones Neville, Wilkinson & Rivera, Pricegore, Central Saint Martins Wood Workshop, Gussie Quaile-Found and Joseph Boultbee for scrap materials.
Workshop photographs by Jamie Pazmino and Abbie Vickress.
Can you wriggle like a worm?
Can you spin a web?
Can you move like a bug?
What would it be like to move with six or a hundred legs?
‘Bug’ is a general term to describe any kind of small creature, such as invertebrates and arthropods, which include insects, spiders, worms, centipedes and millipedes. ‘True bugs’ are a kind of insect with piercing-sucking mouthparts.
Imagine your arms are antenna helping you touch and smell the environment around you.
What can designers learn from detrivores?
Detrivores are organisms that consume dead or decomposing organic matter, such as dead plants. Many bugs are detrivores, such as earthworms, millipedes, woodlice and dung beetles. This recycles nutrients back into the ecosystem, from which more plants and creatures can grow. By reusing waste materials imaginatively, designers can become part of this living system.
Can you imagine the forest floor?
Cut out the shape of something you might find wriggling beneath your feet in the woods. Perhaps it’s some fallen leaves, twigs, strands from a network of tree roots or mushrooms, a colony of ants, some earthworms or any kind of bug. Glue this to the scenography.
Now look at the leftover shapes of paper. How could they form a new forest creature or living thing? Assemble these in the sceonography as well.
Close your eyes and choose a few pieces of scrap wood. These pieces are offcuts from furniture makers, artists and designers based in Camden and beyond.
How does the wood feel? Is it sharp, smooth or textured? Trace the outline of its shape with your fingers? Does it have an interesting grain, pattern or colour?
Working in small groups tie together your pieces of wood using string and knots.
How can you bring this bug creature to life? Can you give it breath? How would it move through the forest floor?