Microsoft, Apple hard

About the work

In the early 1990s, two empires were at war. Microsoft shipped Word and Excel on white plastic disks. Claris - Apple's software arm - released FileMaker Pro on midnight blue. Across offices, schools, and homes, users increasingly found themselves aligned with one ecosystem or the other.

Microsoft, Apple hard assembles those original artefacts - real, unmodified disks from that era - into a single relief work. At its centre sits an original first-generation wireless Apple Mighty Mouse, Apple's first foray into multi-button design, its Apple logo the fulcrum around which the whole composition turns. Microsoft white and Claris blue radiate outward, locked into permanent coexistence.

This is not a reproduction. Every disk is original. Every label carries the wear of its era. The piece protrudes from its flat frame in full relief. No glass, no barrier - part archive, part sculpture, demanding to be seen from multiple angles.

"The software that once ran the world, now framed." - Adam Noakes

A brief history in objects

1991: Microsoft Word and Excel ship on 3.5″ HD disks for the Apple Macintosh Series. Claris FileMaker Pro ships alongside them — different colour, same battlefield.

2006: Apple releases the wireless Mighty Mouse - its first wireless multi-button mouse. Apple concedes that one button is not enough. A quiet admission. A design landmark.

2025: 'Microsoft, Apple hard' is created. The disks and the mouse share a frame for the first time. The war is over. The artefacts remain.

Dimensions

Framed; Width (490 mm) -  Height (368 mm) - Depth (20 mm) - Protrusion (70 mm)

Art area; Width (410 mm) -  Height (285 mm) No glass.

Weight; Lightweight - suitable for standard picture hooks < 2 kg

Materials

Original 3.5″ floppy disks - Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Claris FileMaker Pro (Apple Macintosh Series, circa 1991).

Apple Mighty Mouse, first-generation (original wireless hardware, 2006) - Apple's first multi-button mouse.

Flat frame, no glass.