As children scale a wall to look through a barred window in a Whitechapel street, the camera behind them moves in and up to reveal what they are struggling to see: a photographer’s studio with a paper sky, a canvas sea, and a beach made from carpet underlay. The children are right to feel excluded; this is a sort of playground. Inside, actors apply themselves earnestly to their tasks. A peasant startles a rabbit by bowling eggs off a carpet globe. Nude workers crawl up and down rubber slopes, operating a mill which grinds corn to feed geese. A blue carpet, suspended horizontally, is agitated