The Wunderkammer as a Hybrid Genre

It is safe to say that the writers of the 21^st century have all the access in the world to new and unique ways of expressing their works, access that writers of yesteryear could have never imagined. Yet, these programs and new scientific breakthroughs do not make writing effectively easy, it does not mean that beautiful poetry is going to come flowing out of you; the tasks of a writer still remain daunting; however it is comforting to know all the help that we have. Yes, writers can do marvelous things with their poetry, whether it is through a special computer program or simply a small distinct feature, writers have the ability to make their works complex and one of a kind like never before, such as Susan Delagranges’s Wunderkammer piece, exhibit, catalog; I don’t even know what to call it. From the moment I opened the webpage I was intrigued how it was set up almost as if it were a menu for an online catalog site; which in a way it was yet just not what we are used to. Something I did not realize until I read a fellow classmates response was the fact that when you opened the webpage it came up as a “closed cabinet”, but once you clicked on the page the cabinet opened up, serving as the perfect analogy for the “closed cabinet” idea that is presented immediately. 

The mixing of genres was evident from the moment and I opened this page, and it made me think of Devitt. As I just stated, when I opened this website I almost felt as if I was looking at a menu of food or a selection of clothes, to me that is the style of the site, due to this I believe that it shared multiple genres. The genre of people who are used to viewing similar webpages, usually an older crowd, such as online menus or clothes stores was there, as long as the obvious genre of poetry. The task of making a website pop is a difficult task to say the least, and the Wunderkammer piece passed that test with flying colors. Yet as i will continue to explain, this site worked for me, but i am not sure it worked for the target audience. The mixing of genres and audiences was evident, however i still believe a large portion of the audience was left out.

With the tabs being set up the way that they are at the top of the page, it made it painless to navigate throughout and to find places where I just was.  Also, I loved how it set up as a sort of online art gallery, extremely unique. Yet, it dawned on me after a while of going through this site, that the target audience may be a bit misplaced and Delarange may be in the wrong genre. In my opinion, the target audience for a sort of Kairos experiment such as this would be for a slightly older crowd (other than college kids writing reports on it of course) and the fact that older crowds and technology do not mix together is a bit of a concern for me. I understand the aspect of the hybrid genre and how the Wunderkammer does different things to make it quirky, yet I am not sure if it all works and meshes for the attended audience. The uses of moving pictures, also known as Gifs, is a newer sort of picture technology that is used a great deal by todays youth, and was used religiously here, yet I once again go back to the fact that the target audience may not be a fan of all these new age tricks to make a website pop. Yet, I still have my doubts about how this website simply misses the target audience, which shows that a mixing of genres in most cases can lead to challenging results.