The Aesthedes 1: Rare Dutch Computer from the 1980s Making Waves Worldwide

The museum already has Aesthedes 2 in its collection. Also a rare computer, and, as far as we know, there are only 7 in the world. Van den Akker started a crowdfunding campaign to get the Aesthedes 1 as well. He has enough money now and is waiting for the computer. “I’m borrowing it from Amsterdam and I only have to pay the transport costs. But of course I’m not allowed to transport it in a van with blankets. We have to use a special transport company.”

Van den Akker posted information about the Aesthedes on the Internet a few years ago. “I said it looked like Photoshop,” he says. “I got an answer to that, because if you say something wrong, you’ll be told straight away. An Englishman had worked with him before. He said Photoshop was a little kid with a sidewalk chalk, compared to the Aesthedes.”

Big names worked with computers. According to Bart, the Heineken logo and the 25 guilder note were designed by him. Volvo worked with him. And Remia. “The man in England sent me a lot of information. It cost 300 thousand pounds at the time.” The information is very important to Bart. “We don’t just collect objects, we collect stories.”

Bart works with his team to get the computers working. They have already come a long way with the Aesthedes 2. msgstr “It works at 99.9 percent. There is still something wrong with the keyboard.” The museum is in contact with a woman who also worked with him. “She loved going to work every day. Until her company switched to Macintosh. She quit after a few days. She thought it was a soulless machine there.”

Dutchman Dominique Claessens, who also had a design studio in Eindhoven, developed the Aesthedes. “He promised my English correspondent that the computer would be profitable within a year. That happened after only 9 months of assignment from the English army,” says Bart. “It’s a very interesting story. I even went so far as to contact Netflix to make a film. But money is needed. It was not an option.”

But Bart hopes to have a new crowd puller with the Aesthedes. The museum has no complaints about visitors. “Half of the visitors are international. People mainly make the trip from Australia and the United States.”

And so the museum is slowly becoming the pride of Helmond. “Actually, a lot of Helmond residents don’t know about it,” said Bart. “You don’t just go to the museum in your own town.” Bart invited Bill Gates to come. But he’s very busy with disease control these days.” However, Bart hopes to visit Helmond again.