Mac as Modernism

Clever contrarian article about the retro origins of Mac's supposedly contemporary design. Tasty quote:

It is easy to imagine a ThinkPad or a Dell on the assembly line, in a clanking factory that stinks of solder: You can see their every join and part; you can almost smell the plastic they’re made from. Their attempts at decoration only make the industrial coverup more apparent, like reeds planted near a tailings pond. Whereas the water-carved clamshell of my beautiful Air just seems to have arisen from the waves, immaculate and virtuous, without a whiff of brimstone or fuel oil.

One other reading of what the Air represents: It may not be about the apotheosis of modernist design so much as its approaching disappearance.

Read the article: Why Mac's Modernism Is Old