The Objects of Our Life

An archive is a time machine. Old photos, recordings, notes, papers, and prototypes are portals to the past—visceral connections that help us understand how “then” became “now.”

Today, we’re delighted to share our latest digital exhibit: The Objects of Our Life. With an introduction by Jony Ive, the exhibit features exclusive footage of Steve, then 28 years old, addressing designers at the 1983 International Design Conference in Aspen. Some audio from the talk has appeared online, but this is the first time the full video, along with new content, is being released to the public.

This is not yet the polished Steve Jobs of black turtlenecks and spotlit keynote presentations. Like the computers he loves, he is still a work in progress. He looks at his notes—a lot. He swears. He offers a now vintage take on AI and spends more than three minutes trying to help the audience understand what a software program is. (Remember, it’s 1983.) He experiments with several analogies for the computer: It’s like a brain. It’s a superfast personal assistant, an accelerator for productivity, a means of expressing yourself, a connection to other people, a tool for communication.

The footage is old, the fashions are old, the technology Steve describes is old—and yet something about this video is timeless.

Here is a passionate young person insisting that work should be refined and perfected until it is as great as it can be; making the case that everyday appliances and tools should be designed with respect, rigor, and joy; tipping his hat to work he loves; and acknowledging that no one can make something wonderful entirely alone. Here is what it looks like to have an idea far enough outside the mainstream that you must invent even the analogies to describe it.

An archive is a time machine—and a home for ideas that can endure forever and speak across generations. We hope you enjoy watching Steve at a time when, as he once described it, “you have ideas bigger than you are.”

Until next time,

Leslie