SW-reading response questions 10/24/12

1.) The significance of audience in the Tradescant collection (in Cabinets to Museum) is the free access to people despite their station or gender. This freedom is unlike the beginning of zoo history when menageries asserted status and position. The term "ark" implies hope or future. Zoos use "ark" in efforts of conservation. The owner of the collection uses "ark" as this present for generations to come. This term corresponds with the idea of Noah's ark and the idea of conserving for future education/enjoyment/prosperity. 2.) The primary purpose of a Wunderkammer is to display objects that would normally not be seen. This purpose parallels to the ideas and functions of the zoo. The idea is to give access to all people to places unvisited, the unseen, the unknown. Maybe the Wunderkammer plays up the exotic object too much. 3.) Both exhibits function as Wunderkammers. The intention is to display what is normally not seen to public but still is installed like a Wunderkammer. Dion's cabinet is more successful in the educational purposes. 4.) The organization of a museum is specific to categories of geographic location, temporal aspects, biological, evolutionary, etc. Wunderkammers are arranged in a way best fit to grab visitor attention not necessarily educate in a historical, cultural, anthropological or scientific context. The section about influenza was interesting and overlapped with a class I took last semester called Disease Dynamics.