Untitled (several bystanders looking into shop window at mysterious vacuum display) c. 1950

Curator: This photograph, "Untitled (several bystanders looking into shop window at mysterious vacuum display)" by Jack Gould, captures a curious street scene. The image is held in the Harvard Art Museums collection. Editor: There’s a strange tension here. The almost ghostly figures of the onlookers contrast sharply with the solidity of what appears to be a vacuum cleaner display. Curator: It’s interesting to consider the context of consumer culture at the time. Shop window displays were carefully crafted tools of persuasion, and the bystanders highlight a fascination with new technology. Editor: And a disconnect! These onlookers, so formally dressed, are confronted by… what exactly? It looks like some sort of underwater vacuum device. The material qualities, the chrome and hose, are presented like a new fetish. Curator: It's likely capturing a specific social dynamic, a moment of aspirational gazing. Who is included and excluded in the imagined future promised by such domestic technologies? Editor: Absolutely. The photo freezes a moment of labor, material, and consumption, all in stark relief. Curator: The image reveals the promise and the questions of its time, a powerful statement about technology and society. Editor: It makes one consider the artifice of consumerism, how materials and design can create entire worlds of desire.