Opstelling van een door G. Seidl ontworpen woonkamer in het Bayerisches Nationalmuseum te München 1876

Editor: So, here we have "Opstelling van een door G. Seidl ontworpen woonkamer in het Bayerisches Nationalmuseum te München," a gelatin-silver print from 1876. It depicts an interior, and it feels very staged, very deliberate. What jumps out at you about it? Curator: The starkness. This image, a photographic record of a designed living room, points directly to the commodification of domestic space. Consider the materials-- the wood paneling, the table linens, even the implied presence of glass in the windows. These are all products of labor, accessible to a specific class at this moment. The stag horns even evoke hunting practices as a leisure pursuit. Editor: So you see it as a kind of snapshot of wealth, literally? Curator: Precisely! And it prompts the question: who is this for? Not necessarily to be *lived* in, but to be seen and, perhaps, emulated by the rising bourgeois class in Germany at that time. Photography itself was becoming more accessible, so think about the implications of documenting and distributing such an image. This room is staged, presented, almost manufactured for the consumption of a new type of audience. The craft and labor involved is masked by its apparent naturalness. Editor: That makes me think about how design is often about controlling a narrative, a certain type of lifestyle, hiding where things come from. It's kind of chilling. Curator: Exactly. It's an early example of designed aspiration made material. Editor: I never thought about interior design like that. I’ll definitely look at it differently from now on. Thanks! Curator: My pleasure! It's all about deconstructing what's presented to see the mechanisms at play.