The London-based studio Dorothy—makers of posters and infographics that also serve as speculative maps of fanciful worlds—has released its latest print, a look inside the original Macintosh computer. In typical Dorothy fashion, though, the inside of a Mac isn't filled with circuit boards and transistors, but a tiny world full of microscopic people.
Although Dorothy's map of the inside of the original 1984 Macintosh probably won't satisfy silicon geeks, it's still a lot of fun. The poster filled with whimsical references to Apple lore: a tiny man running on a hamster wheel indicates OS X's "spinning wheel" cursor, while a Stalin-esque statue of Steve Jobs in the upper level of the Mac make reference to "El Capitan." There's even a NASA-like space center in the bulky Mac mouse to represent OS X's Mission Control. In all, there are 29 labeled references to Macs in the poster, and Dorothy's Ali Johnson tells me there are even more hidden ones to discover.
I think what I like about it most, though, is that this Lilliputian approach to the Mac isn't as fanciful as it might first appear. After all, Steve Jobs himself pushed for a "little man" called Mr. Macintosh to come pre-installed inside every Mac. That plan didn't pan out in the end, but Dorothy's visualization is probably what the silly, surreal world Mr. Macintosh would have looked like had Steve Jobs gotten his way.
You can purchase the three-color litho print for around $44 here.
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