Apple Computer

Apple Computer enters the diary through a single, vivid encounter: at Sean Lennon’s birthday, a new Apple Macintosh computer draws together Steve Jobs, Andy Warhol, and artists curious about what the machine can do. Rather than offering a broad account of the company, the episode records how its computer arrived in an artist’s bedroom and became a tool for drawing—and a measure of Warhol’s unease with a younger generation’s technology.

The Macintosh at Sean’s Birthday

After dinner, some guests went with Yoko Ono and Sean to a WNEW broadcast, while others stayed behind. In Sean’s bedroom, a child was setting up the Apple Macintosh computer he had received as a present. The surrounding room was crowded with signs of childhood and family life: two mattresses lay on the floor, Beatles pictures covered the walls, and wrapping paper, presents, and robot toys filled the space. The computer was one object among many, but its arrival redirected the gathering toward a new kind of image-making.

Steve Jobs and the Demonstration

Warhol recalled that a man had repeatedly called, wanting to give him a computer, but that he had never returned the calls. The young person setting up Sean’s machine identified himself as Steve Jobs and offered to send Warhol one now. Jobs then gave him a lesson in drawing on the computer. The account emphasizes both the machine’s limits and its promise: it displayed only black and white at the time, though color was expected soon. Apple Computer is thus present not as an abstract institution but through a product, its interface, and a direct demonstration by one of the people associated with its invention.

Artists, Technology, and Generational Unease

The computer quickly became a shared creative instrument. Keith Haring had already used one to make a T-shirt; Kenny Scharf was using it for the first time. Watching them alongside Jobs, Warhol felt old and out of step in the presence of a young technological innovator. That reaction gives the scene its tension: a device for making images brings artists together, yet also exposes differences in familiarity and generation.

The diary’s emotional aftermath belongs to the same birthday gathering, though not to Apple Computer alone. After leaving, Warhol felt blue because he thought Keith had become Sean’s preferred adult friend; Keith had been invited to a children’s party the next day, and Warhol did not think he had been. The computer scene therefore sits within a larger account of shifting closeness: new tools and new friendships share the same room, while Warhol registers both the excitement of the machine and his fear of being displaced.