Bugs & Belongin‘
AFROFUTURIST AR INSECT TRADING CARD CONCEPT
Bugs & Belongin’ is an interactive media project that reimagines environmental education through game design, cultural storytelling, and ecological exploration. Centered on a trading card game system, the project invites players to collect, study, and engage with insects not as objects of fear, but as essential participants in both ecological systems and cultural narratives.
Insects play a vital role in sustaining biodiversity, yet they are often misunderstood or rejected due to fear and cultural stigma. These perceptions can be especially complex within communities where historical relationships to land and environment have been shaped by survival, displacement, and limited access to ecological education. At the same time, the contributions of Black entomologists remain underrepresented in both academic and public spaces. Drawing inspiration from the Great Dismal Swamp, a historic refuge for Maroon communities, and the Japanese arcade-based trading card game Mushiking: The King of Beetles, this project bridges cross-cultural approaches to insects and play. In Japan, insect collecting is often associated with childhood curiosity, learning, and admiration.
In contrast, insects in many American contexts, particularly within the African American diaspora, are more often linked to discomfort or avoidance. Bugs & Belongin’ responds to this contrast by reimagining what it means to interact with insects through a culturally grounded lens. Each card represents a living archive: ecological behavior, cultural symbolism, and inherited knowledge encoded into playable form. The game becomes a tool for learning, but also a gateway into a larger narrative.
The Great Dismal Swamp serves as a conceptual anchor for this project, symbolizing both ecological resilience and Black resistance. Its dense, layered ecosystem mirrors the hidden histories it holds, making it a powerful site for exploring connections between land, survival, and memory.
A companion prequel expands this universe, tracing the origins of the card system through speculative history. It asks: what if this knowledge had always existed, passed down, protected, and reimagined across generations?
Through play, Bugs & Belongin’ invites audiences to see insects not as something to fear, but as guides revealing new ways to understand environment, identity, and belonging across time.
Download the AR Game (Android Only) and learn more about the creator below!
