Location from Severance by Dan Erickson
The art department across the hall — kept deliberately hostile to MDR to prevent solidarity, and the place where Irving found the only person who made the severed floor bearable.
Optics & Design curates and maintains the artwork and visual elements of the severed floor. Burt ran the department for over twenty years. They have a warmer workspace, blue coats instead of suits, and a relationship with aesthetics that MDR's number-sorting lacks. Lumon deliberately cultivated hostility between MDR and O&D — Irving was taught that O&D members were dangerous. This manufactured rivalry is designed to prevent the inter-departmental solidarity that could threaten institutional control. Irving and Burt's love story was revolutionary precisely because it crossed this manufactured line.
A larger, more comfortable office than MDR with art supplies, curated paintings, and a warmer aesthetic. The O&D team wears blue coats. The space reflects their function — maintaining visual elements throughout the severed floor. A hidden room filled with plants exists somewhere in their territory.
Also known as: O&D