Birdhouse Interactive is a creative studio and platform housing digital reading experiences of animated poetry. It is a web-based platform through which audiences can engage visual digital artist books, namely multimedia narrative poems that are navigated within a digital context. The platform blends literature with visual art as well as information design practice in creating digital narratives.
Given that my creative research practice is primarily concerned with the combination of poetry, animation and interactive media, I continuously explore how the digital artist book medium is able to enhance the ways in which audiences navigate digital narrative content. Considering the haptic nature of interactive narrative content, I am conscientious in applying the best practices when designing multi-modal and sensory user experiences. My work interrogates the concern of how we share our lived experiences through digital stories; this is the key concern that forms the backbone of my visual art practice. In working with the digital artist book format, I am always eager to learn how new technologies can be used to compliment modes of digital storytelling. I go about this process though iterative experimentation, play and creativity.
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I am Tebogo Boikanyo Matshana and I'm using visual art, illustration and 2D frame-by-frame animation towards finding ways to narrativise educational content into moving poems.
I have a deep reaching love for storytelling, be it through digital animation, illustration as well as design; sharing a story sincerely has always been at the core of my creative practice.
I have a background in the fields of Graphic as well as Interactive and Production Design. Having completed a postgraduate degree of a Master of Arts in Information Design , I have cultivated an awareness of the value of visual rhetoric. Applying critical thinking when working with text and image inspires me to be intentional in every project I undertake and collaborate in creating.
I wonder... how the combination of creative and interactive visual art along with English literature, is able to permeate and enhance digital learning practices ?
How can interactive digital content encourage users to engage with visual information in a mindful manner?
Inspired by the premise that we learn when engaging information as stories, I trust that viewers and readers are better equip to holistically retain information when interacting with it; the Birdhouse Interactive platform affords me the opportunity to create, share and explore solutions that honour this particular sensibility.
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Having had hands on experience in the context of an art museum and centre for artist books, I have learned that there is a myriad of ways one can visually communicate with a reader and an audience. I have learned that, similar to the artist book form, a user interface can be described as a trojan horse in that it requires the user’s participation and engagement in order to communicate its meaning. More to this, considering the reader's experience is always paramount when layering multimedia materials towards creating meaning. Artists books and digital visualisations are user centric by nature, the possibilities are endless. This is the approach I apply when digitally constructing information, particularly when working within the context of innovative hypermedia platforms.
Latest release
Songbird on the sea
I created this work during an artist
residency programme called the Boathouse Artist Residency based in Ahmedabad India in December 2023.
The notion of crossing the ocean both physically as well as metaphorically carries significance in the context of this work.
This digital interactive body of work grapples with the concept of loneliness as an ocean to be traversed .The physical version of the artist book is published in collaboration with Joburg based publisher Pulp Paperworks.
This interactive illustrated anthology is concerned with the notions of belonging, drowning, rowing and navigating the ocean of one’s inner most experiences. These key thematic concerns are explored through the two characters of a bird, namely a blackpoll warbler and a woman. The woman is represented in doubles, her selfhood is visualised as an autonomous entity that concurrently lives outside of, beside and within herself. The work contemplates the idea of the innermost circle of belonging to one’s own selfhood, singularity and sovereignty.
In conversation with social scientist Bréne Brown (2020), author Vivek Hallegere Murthy notes that scarcities in meaningful connections in our communities tend to eventuate in widespread cases of chronic loneliness . In creating this body of work I engaged the sense of isolation I have intimately known as a kind of character, one that has ironically kept me company. While there are oftentimes depictions of two women, they are in fact one woman, the self mirroring the self. She is tethered to a bird namely a blackpoll warbler. The characters of the woman and the bird are interchangeable, a unit, and an expression of one selfhood. The blackpoll warbler is the smallest bird of its size to achieve the migratory feat of roughly 20 000 km from North to South America over the short period of two to three days. With a wing span of roughly 25-27 cm it is the only songbird of its kind able to achieve this physically taxing feat. In transcending the ocean of emotions I have felt associated with the state of loneliness, I have considered the blackpoll warbler conquering the sea by transcending it.
A poem can open a door to one’s own lived experience by reflecting someone else’s; moreover, engaging a poem can feel like being entrusted with a secret. My artistic practice involves a process where I write poetry, illustrate the text and then animate the final narrative poem using 2D frame-by-frame animation techniques. I work dominantly using Adobe Photoshop when creating illustrations and artworks. I aim to further enhance the text by creating interactive animated versions of the poem, in this process, I often make use of Adobe Animate. Additionally, I transform original short stories into digital interactive graphic novel content.
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I am...
The animated interactive poem I am... is a narrative about the transcendence of the external. It is a narrative about creating a home and safety within oneself, connecting with one's innate value and the infinite link to all that extends beyond oneself.
Poemsongs in Setswana
Inspired by the principle underlying the Book Dash initiative ( namely collating resources in illustration, writing and design, towards the output of a book in a day); over the course of a week, I sought to create an interactive poem/song a day.
a blackbird makes a sound ( second edition)
A blackbird makes a sound (the second edition) is re-titled Birdsound. The interactive poem is a digital animated reading experience that brings to the fore the concept of self affirmation through sound.
The songbird collection
The songbird collection is a compilation of poems about inspiring women who have triumphed over adversity and led inspiring lives.
My mom is...
My mom is... is an animated poem designed as an interactive picture book. The narrative poem is about a relationship with a mother figure who's presence transcends the parameters of the physical world. It is the story of a young girl who loses her mother but comes to find her in the world all around her.
Browse my portfolio of projects below.
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