Icao Tiseli

University of Auckland

This week SANNZ talks to the lovely Icao Tiseli about her thesis, which deals with visualizing the indigenous perspective of her culture through the unique topographical mapping of her mother’s Tongan island.

SANNZ: Irrelevant but necessary question; what would your Patronus charm be?

Icao: Yes! [laughs] Okay, so I did Pottermore and they said my Patronus was a “Stag”!

SANNZ: In short, What is your thesis about?

Icao: It deals with mapping as a transformative agent within typography.

SANNZ: Why do you think it’s so hard to talk about your own thesis?

Icao: It is difficult, my project is based around maps, so my first obstacle when I conceived of this idea was trying to find the validity of these maps. The real question was, is it really important? It was a very humbling moment, where I kind of saw my project from the outside, acting as my own worst critic. What is the relevance of this? I unpacked that importance of that and it came out of two things. Within my body of work, within architecture, the environment has played a huge role within each of my design proposals. Realising and understanding that, came about by going back to my mother’s Island twenty years after I was there. It was a very personal moment, where having witnessed this space on this island and most importantly the stories; understanding those which I had grown up hearing. With the absence of my grandparents who used to tell them, I felt like I was reconnecting with a part of myself and everything came together and begun to make sense. But the importance of the maps and the landscape in my thesis is to unlock those different types of potentials. Maps are quantified, they are measured. Whenever we go to a place, it is intangible qualities which connect us to that space. It is the way people function, it’s your favourite store, it’s the way these places are in Summer, or in Spring that makes you feel a sense of place. I think these qualities of gaining a sense of place are not tangible through a map. I want to reveal these qualities.

SANNZ: What inspired you to choose this topic?

Icao: The Island that I went back to, it’s just so magical. I’m very much driven by the indigenous perspective on everyday life there. I want to investigate how the culture of the people work and how they perceive their own sense of place.

SANNZ: Tell me about your supervisor and why you chose to work with them?

Icao: My Supervisor is Mike Austin, who actually happens to be a very happy accident. I initially was hesitant to work with I’m since I never had so before but he always knows what to give me for each stage of the process. By some chance, having worked with him, we discovered that he had also traveled to the exact Island I was basing my thesis around in the eighties, so looking back I always view getting Mike as just a happy accident. I think our planets are aligned [laughs].

SAANZ: How have you felt about pursuing just ONE topic for the whole year?

Icao: With thesis topics, I find that they are very revealing about an individual. For some, it’s broader issues that they focus on with just one topic. For me, it’s all the subconscious elements I’ve picked up from architecture school gradually amalgamated into this nice package which I’m dealing with right now which is landscape and the environment followed by storytelling.

SANNZ: When tackling a design, what is your approach in the conceptual stage?

Icao: I first started out by drawing a map, with all the theory emerging after. I did know was dealing with the indigenous perspective, therefore, I knew I needed a hands-on approach to media. It thought printing would be a good approach, then I briefly contemplated laser-cutting before realizing that I should use the technique of carving. I wanted to pick out areas I wanted to visit as they reflected an interesting typography and personally carved it; leaving room for creativity to flourish, interpreting the typology as I wanted to view it. This is all before I even re-visited the Island.

SANNZ: How has your process changed since your first preliminary crit?

Icao: I realised the aerial view is a Western perspective. How our people used to navigate was through a ground plane; this personal experience resulted in my day-to-night maps. I wanted to capture with these maps what It must feel like to transition from day to night, experientially for the people. As I interrogated more I realised the compass too is a Western construction, therefore I had to create my own compass. With all my supported texts, I had to begin to rely on mythology and folklore to assist me in understanding how people discussed land, the environment, sea, and sky. I discovered that Traditionally in Tongan words; North and South is not Traditional and so I had to use Hahake and Hihifo (East to West) and  I placed myself as if I were living in that time, utilizing light and shadows to display moments of the day, with at night; opening them up to the stars; aiding human navigation. I’ve utilized mapping as an illustrative expression in order to assist me in my narrative of how people perceive site, place, and land; with architecture coming after to facilitate those types of concerns.

SAANZ: How do you feel the University of Auckland Architecture school has set you up for the industry?

Icao: Ooh, that’s a loaded question [laughs]. In terms of the industry, classes like ArchPRM (Professional Studies) in conjunction with simply putting yourself out there and attending industry lectures, talks, and events, certainly have I feel. These are the things we interact with to better understand, at this stage, the correlation of what we’re doing in relation to practice. However, in regards to preparation for practice; I feel we are not equipped enough for the technical side of design.  Our school is definitely more design-oriented and to be honest, I wouldn’t change it. Critical thought is one of the most valuable things I’ve learned from this school.

How you take an idea, and where that idea will lead you and that’s the most exciting thing. The process is more than the result. The architectural realm tells us that we should have a perceived ending but I feel like the richest projects bloom at different stages. It’s all about understanding the process where your project should go as this is the point where negative feelings of insecurity about where one’s project breeds from. The school should definitely acknowledge the beauty of different processes and the fact that their level of articulation occurs at a different time.

SAANZ: Advice to those who will be in your shoes a year from now?:

Icao: I think we should understand that if we reach fifth year as architecture students, you should understand by now what type of worker you are. For me, I know when I’ve hit a wall to a point where it’d literally going nowhere. At these points, I take the breaks that I need and once I do so, I return to my work. 

I leave room for adapting and have understood how to not be too hard on myself if I didn’t do the day as well as I had hoped. It’s also about working through your stress whilst understanding where you’re emotions emerge from. Identifying issues that at times, may arise out of the blue and there is only so much you can do. At the end of the day just have a wine if you feel super wound-up, have a chat with a friend, go and get some family time; hug a tree, cuddle an animal, etc. Do what you need to do to get the time that you need for yourself.

SAANZ: What music has been the soundtrack to your thesis so far?

Icao: I listen to a lot of 2000’s Hip Hop but generally whatever I like. I’ve recently listened to J. Cole’s KOD album (which is super, super great) but in Heritage for some reason, I had Frank Ocean’s “Blonde” on repeat. Before that, I was listening to a lot of Cuban music, although it was a bit counter-productive [imitates dance].

SAANZ: What have been some moments of fruition during your thesis?

Icao: I had a recent one. I was in the same stage I am now where I was writing some of my thesis chapters, one of which deals with the concept of time. I just unlocked that the procedures that I’ve been practicing with time are not traditional. I’ve just realized how we perceive time is a self-contained period. When a Chief dies; age dies, therefore there is a new age, new time, etc. In Western culture, time is linear, so by revealing these things I find myself trying to unpack the idea even further.

SAANZ: What are you going to miss the most about the Architecture school when you leave?

Icao: Learning! I love learning [laughs]. I just love the staff too and my peers. Those people who have nurtured me through this journey and have guided me through it. They were the ones that made me fall in love with the school in the first place.

SAANZ:  What are your hopes for next year and what aspect of architecture do you want to be pursuing?

Icao: I don’t know yet, I’m willing to learn. I have no preconceptions or expectations of where I should and shouldn’t go. I’m gonna come in as a blank canvas, as I feel like my world’s gonna be rocked again by starting from the bottom and I’m open to that struggle. I can’t go in with preconceived notions of how it will go, because I’ll be disappointed. I’m gonna try and view it all as an experience and see where I land.

Interview by Valentina Espinoza Caceres & Jonah Tan

Photography by Valentina Espinoza Caceres