Apple introduces the iCon

(from Thesaurus)
When it comes to representing or embodying the invisible or intangible, you can't beat a symbol. It applies to anything that serves as an outward sign of something immaterial or spiritual (the cross as a symbol of salvation; the crown as a symbol of monarchy), although the association between the symbol and what it represents does not have to be based on tradition or convention and may, in fact, be quite arbitrary (the annual gathering at the cemetery became a symbol of the family's long and tragic history). 


Hello I’m a Computer that uses a Mac
I’ve been a user of Apple products for more then Twenty years. I also worked and still work in the field of communication/advertising. A different story in itself. In the early days Apple products where aimed at people like me. I fit their original profile exactly. “Don’t let technology interfere with creativity”. I remember the first computers that came onto the market. The old Sinclair, ZX Spectrum, Atari’s and Commodore’s. I had friends and within my family there where people playing around with them. They all learned coding and as a result most of them got very good jobs later in life. For me it was different because I thought differently. I’m a think different guy remember. Lines of code where not my cup of tea. Lot's of code on a screen made my eyes go bananas. Couldn't focus on a line of code longer than 10 seconds. Still have that when I look at large Excel sheets. It all starts to move and makes me feel epileptic. Words that give meaning and value to other words to order those other words to do things. I run into the same resistance when reading Desteni material. It's clean code. As pure as it get's and I just feel my mind resisting this pure code. It leaves no room for interpretation. It's kind of the Unix versus Basic equation. So I hated computers and the way they worked in those days. I couldn’t find any practical application for them in my life except playing games on them. Oh how I loved to play games and have fun. We are talking early eighties here. I had so much fun playing those first games on computers. Little did I know about the great role those stupid calculators would play in my life.

Around 1993 there was a buzz going through art school. The old typesetting machines would be replaced by computers. Apple computers. Computers you could operate with a ‘mouse’. Sounds strange but up to that moment the whole world was staring at blue or green computer screens that presented text. Code served by the DOS or pro DOS operating system. I was very curious because it was told that these computers would have a GUI. So no more blue screen but icons a desktop and graphically displayed tools you could use with that ‘mouse’ thing that had a button on top.

Up to then nearly all graphic work was done by hand. Creating lay outs was literally what the words imply. Laying it out. Reproducing the image with a camera. Dividing the image into dots through screening. Very labour intensive. It was a craft you really had to learn and It took time to learn because motor skills where needed. I should state that I have developed a very impatient personality over the years. The moment I sat behind that strange little cube called a Macintosh and my hand touched that mouse for the first time a strange thing happened. I became energized. There is no other description because that’s exactly what happened. Within one hour I realized hands on what would normally take days appeared in front of my eyes within minutes. And I was just fooling around with that thing called a Mac. I fell in love with this tool. I knew that I found a way to get my ideas out fast. So I loved it. The sounds it made, the shape, the smell even the bugs where kind of charming. That first little Mac was the tool that erased a lot of limitations for me. It became my little friend that helped me. I just wanted to be creative with it. Create pictures visualize stuff. Get the stuff in my head out. The Mac allowed me to do this even though it was a 7” BW screen with 256 shades of grey. Typefaces where there immediately. I didn’t have to draw them out first. Which normally took hours to do. Pictures could be scanned and where in my layouts within minutes. I was behind that thing every night in school. Learning the programs although I wasn’t allowed to do so.

Apple was a company with a strange twist. I don’t have to read Steve Jobs biography to know what the man is about. I’ve used his ideas hands on for more than twenty years. And yes brilliant. He knew my brain better than I did. And this came through when I used the Mac. A very strange relationship developed between me and the Jobs Machines. The Mac had and still has Steve Jobs written into it's source code and I have used that code everyday for the biggest part of my life. I interacted and spent more Time with Macs than with people and in comparison to people my relationships with Macs where generally more stable.

Being the first generation to use this stuff meant doing a lot of pioneering without even being aware of it. I spend so much time on getting to know this Machine. So I got a ‘feel’ for it. I can tell you hands on that every Macintosh model had a character. A smell, behavior. There where little noises or glimpses that told me to shut down and restart before the thing locked up. Lot’s of thingies that made working with Macs similar to working with things that are ‘alive’. It sounds completely stupid but that’s my experience. Every Mac had a character.

After I bought My first Mac LC I had an important insight. It might sound stupid again but the Mac showed me the concept of 'structure'. A way to organize and layer information. In time there is a always a starting point. A top folder. Using the hierarchy of a desktop, folders, documents and trash can showed me the way I organized my work. I was very chaotic back then so my own way of working was always in front of me. If I was sloppy the folder (directory) structure would be sloppy. If I organized and categorized everything became faster. So just by using this thing. This Box. This concept. I saw things my parents and teachers where unable to get into my head.

And now the interesting part. Apple had no competition. The best fucking computer in the world and not even a 2-3% market share because the thing cost more than an average car. There was nothing in the world you could buy at that time that did what a Mac did until Microsoft ripped it and introduced it’s first version of Windows which was a disaster. That’s when that whole Apple Microsoft thing hit the scene. Nevertheless I was a power user. I knew my game and people knew I did. I got my first job because I was able to use a Mac the way I did.

So although HP claimed that the PC's where personal again they never where to me. My Mac was personal I couldn’t work with PC’s. Not because they didn’t work (they would sometimes) but because it triggered a physical reaction. The few times I was behind a pc I cramped up and became crumpy. It felt like being with someone and somehow your not on the same page every page. I never asked myself the question why? Why am I emotionally involved with this Machine. But it was not the Machine. It was Steve Jobs (reality distortion field) cleverly hiding inside the iCon that a Mac was. Steve was manipulating me through the use of his product.

 I remember tipping my boss to buy Apple shares a few months before the first iMac was released. Apple Shares where around 6 dollar! The company was on life support. My boss didn't buy those shares. I remember thinking what would happen if the Mac disappeared from my life. It kind of made me panic. But the iMac was released and Apple did what Steve set out to do. People who had shares became wealthy. Bill Gates was one of them.

Apple has become mainstream and they have more money stocked than the united states government. That says it all. Steve Jobs designed an iCon and programmed it after his own image. He sold this iCon to people like me that are more or less handicapped in a way. Call it the ‘Rightbrainers’. Jobs saw the huge potential here. And he was right. It took some cornering but he got it done. Things we create are created in our image and likeness. We are the creators. Look at the world we live in. It’s all created. Jobs created jobs through creating for creators. It’s a strange thing to ponder on because in the big picture it’s commercial perfection. Unfortunately for Steve's legacy we can only consume at the cost of others. This elitist aspect was present in the first Mac and it will be present in the latest iPhone. Symbols of success for people that have it all.

Steve Jobs is considered an icon. He's exactly that. He knew what he was creating including himself. A symbol in a world of iCons we relate to and build our lives on. Nevertheless it’s a con. A convict, a swindle that fooled us all. Part of the process of acceleration. What's in it for me? Turnaround, ROI. In the end it’s all the same. Product to consumer, consuming. The con in consumerism. People die because I want an iPhone. This has to stop.

If there is one company that could make a computer that lasts at least a lifetime just to prove that it’s not about things getting obsolete simply because they have to brake it's Apple. It's about perfection. They should at least show this possibility to the world. There is no need for products to be replaced every 3 years. It’s total bullshit that can only exist because of us accepting and allowing this to be so. Apple could show the world that it’s possible to have tools that are products no more. A pure expression of timeless engineering as an example for a future that includes everyone equal including the tools we use.

Oh and one more thing... Let's have Steve on stage to comment on this.