STEVE JOBS - THE GREATEST ARTIST OF THE PAST 25 YEARS

What is art?

According to Wikipedia it is:

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items (often with symbolic significance) in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, photography, sculpture, and paintings.

Computers do not fall within any of music, literature, film, photography, sculpture, and paintings but Apple technology certainly does influence and affect one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect.

Furthermore in the same way that Apple have developed technology faster than any other company over the past 25 years perhaps the definition of art needs developing as for example 100 years ago film and photography would not have been included in a definition of art and perhaps at one time music and even literature would not have been.

What is certain is that if museums of design and culture do not already own and display Apple products within their permanent collections they soon will be doing so in the same way they display the first hoovers, cars, radios, Amstrad computers and other such landmark items of household and business equipment and in the same way that they devote whole rooms to the great Gatsby look of the early 20^th century and the retro 60s look which is actually returning to fashion.

Perhaps the term Design Museum should be the end of this because apple products are certainly designs and great designs at that but I think that design is art and I am sure that is not in dispute.

So what makes an Apple computer or device so special and why therefore do I think them Art, nay great art and possibly the greatest art of the past 25 years.

The designs themselves are so revolutionary that they still have not even been copied, have won all the design awards that matter and are without doubt beautiful.

It is easy to say things like they have changed the way people work or communicate and that is true but their affect is more fundamental than that. They have actually changed the way people behave and live.

However both the design beauty and technical contribution on people’s way of life is not even close to the full impact of Apple. The true impact is their affect popular culture. Apple, iphone, Imac, Ipad and ipod have become words in the way that products like Coke, Pepsi, Disney have. In fact the letter “i” has become a term, understood by millions although no one even knows what it actually means because it has no meaning.

The genius that was Steve Jobs was that he understood what people wanted and that they did not simply want a great computer or mobile mini music player or a touch screen smart phone he understood that they wanted something to love, show off, be proud off and to be seen with. He also understood that they wanted perfection both in terms of product but more uniquely in terms of delivery.

Steve Jobs understood that people wanted to feel part of something, members of the Apple Club, and that they wanted to feel valued by the company providing them with that. He gave people what they wanted, but did not sell it to them, he gave it to them. The payment made for products were not for the products but the cost of being members of the Apple Club.

So does something that is beautiful, brilliantly designed, life changing and a cultural phenomena or even have the ingredients of being art. Just go back to the definition of art and go through it:

Product of deliberately arranging items. Yes

Often with symbolic significance. Yes

Affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect. Yes to all

Encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression. Yes to all

Great can be defined in terms of its quality and or in terms of its size or number etc. Apple Products are clearly of great quality.

The fact that Apple are the highest selling products of their type all of which have propelled Apple to be the largest company by value in the world means that Apple products are also great by measurement.

No one disputes that Steve Jobs was the heart beat of Apple even if his technical genius was probably surpassed by his senior employees and that makes him the artist behind Apple. Jonathan Ive is credited with designing all the Apple “i” products as Apples head of design but it was Steve Jobs who employed and directed Ive, rejected his proposals, approved final designs and delivered them to Apples “members”

I believe Steve Jobs was undoubtedly a great artist but as is always the case it is impossible to determine if something aesthetic is the greatest out of a range of equally credible contenders. However when I am typing this on my Macbook Pro with my iphone at my side and my heart skips a bit and every time I type the word “was” instead of “is” when referring to Steve Jobs himself I feel a genuine twinge of sadness and I muse on the idea that he possibly was the greatest artist of the past 25 years.

After writing the above I have just read that the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) New York has 6 Apple devices in its collection.