MAS Context 21: Repetition

"Welcome to our Repetition issue. Through eighteen contributions we immerse into a world of monotony, variation, experimentation, replicas, strategies, simulations, imperfections, and routines. We do so in long and short essays, photo essays, interviews, videos, manifestos, and projects. A combination of contributions that question, embrace, and ultimately work with the topic at hand. On top of the varied format of our contributions you will find another aspect added to the mix. Each contribution is uniquely interpreted by a designer based in Chicago, all under the creative direction of Rick Valicenti and Bud Rodecker from Thirst. A specific identity for each contribution that makes up an issue on repetition. We had fun adding even more variation to the topic. In the end, repetition does not have to be boring."

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MAS Context 20: Narrative

"Architecture and narrative, as Victor Hugo nostalgically pointed out in The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1831, have walked hand in hand through history, crossing paths without really risking the extinction that the archdeacon of Notre-Dame gloomily predicted. Today, in a moment where the conjunction of the crisis and the entrance into a new stage in the communication era impulse the discipline into new, multiple directions, the narrative aspects of architecture come to the front. This issue tackles the intersections between architectural practices and different forms of visual narrative. Within this overall theme, our NARRATIVE issue moves on both sides of the line that separates these two disciplines, presenting three different perspectives, organized in three consecutive parts. The first section of the issue deals with the presence of graphic narrative in disciplinary architecture, both past and present while the second one discusses the crossing of borders portrayed by comics artists who also make forays into the built world. Finally, the third one moves towards both sides of the spectrum, briefly covering the tangents with (implied) written narratives and emerging animation practices in architecture."

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