{"id":3141,"date":"2022-04-07T14:42:05","date_gmt":"2022-04-07T14:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/04\/07\/the-weird-computers-and-claustrophobic-hallways-of-severance\/"},"modified":"2022-04-07T14:42:06","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T14:42:06","slug":"the-weird-computers-and-claustrophobic-hallways-of-severance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/04\/07\/the-weird-computers-and-claustrophobic-hallways-of-severance\/","title":{"rendered":"The weird computers and claustrophobic hallways of Severance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/23013413\/severance-apple-tv-plus-production-design-computers<\/a>
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In the vast underground office of Lumon, the megacorporation at the heart of Apple TV Plus\u2019 thriller Severance<\/em><\/a>, the computers are downright bizarre. At first they look a bit like an old Mac, but the closer you look, the more strange they become. The CRT display is somehow a touchscreen. The beautiful blue keyboard is saddled with a gigantic trackball. The goal, production designer Jeremy Hindle tells The Verge<\/em>, was to design a device that doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense, mirroring the purgatory-like world that exists only within Lumon\u2019s basement. \u201cThe idea was that anything you could see underground doesn\u2019t exist up top anywhere,\u201d says Hindle. \u201cYou\u2019ll never see that computer or that keyboard.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article contains light spoilers for Severance.<\/em><\/p>\n

Severance<\/em> takes place in a world where a new procedure \u2014 the titular severance \u2014 allows workers to split their lives in two after a little brain surgery. They essentially become two people: one who lives a relatively normal life and another whose entire existence resides in a purgatory-like office<\/a>. Because of this, the design of the office itself was extremely important. It needed to feel like a place outside of time and space. \u201cYou have to make sure that the inside and outside world are [different] enough that you\u2019re immersed in the world, so you feel like you\u2019re severed when you\u2019re down there with them,\u201d explains Hindle.<\/p>\n

The starting point was offices from the 1960s. \u201cThey\u2019re working in this office environment, and they\u2019re brought in to just be these pro-workers, and they\u2019re birthed into the place,\u201d Hindle says. \u201cIt should be like what offices used to be like. Beautiful desks, beautiful structures, beautiful lights. Just about work. On the desk there\u2019s one pen, a rolodex, a phone. It felt like it had to be that same tone \u2014 but way more playful.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Image: Apple<\/cite><\/p>\n

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At first glance, the offices in Severance<\/em> look fairly normal. They\u2019re brightly lit with clean white walls and carpeted green floors. But in the macrodata refinement wing \u2014 where much of the show takes place \u2014 things are a little off. Despite having a huge room, the four workers are crammed together via a cluster of desks in the middle of the space. From there, things get even stranger. The hallways, designed with the intention of making people lost, twist and turn in confusing ways, and there are rooms filled with 3D printers and baby goats.<\/p>\n

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