[44] ] [mez] [breeze]. _][ad][Dressed in a Skin C.ode. 2001. <http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/netwurker/> (aesthetic)

Text Menu

As does Lexia to Perplexia [43], _][ad][Dressed in a Skin C.ode pushes not only the boundaries of language and thought, but of anchor definitions. This work's purpose is well on the aesthetic side of the efferent-aesthetic scale. It provokes exploration and insights into language and navigation. As Scott Esdaile explains in his review: "Originally, the navigation and interface design of _][ad][Dressed in a Skin C.ode_ may be fairly confusing and unorthodox (particularly the difficult to read fonts and the directory of enhanced texts, with its arrays of what appear to be linked buttons), until it is realised that Mez has not set out to create a site that conforms to usability guidelines and commercially driven ideologies. This is a site that allows the user parallel or simultaneous understandings of the content, while instigating "non-linear and imaginative order" into the vocabulary of electronic communication." [85]

Pseudoanchors

The first screen uses nearly classic selectively animated anchors to reveal two doors: the (n.tance) opening to the entrance for the main work and the (t.ext) opening to an exit through text appendices supporting the work, setting up an expectation that rolling over an icon or graphic will reveal the purpose of the anchor. Instead, the next beginning screen, introduces "psuedoanchors": little squares that would seem to form a site map or be anchors, but which merely yield another graphic. Thus, the work subverts the expectations of anchors nearly from the beginning.

Screenshot used by permission. White text shows our label for the psuedoanchor.

Same space anchors

] [mez] [breeze] also blends content node and anchor asa series of anchors occupies the same space on a node: rolling over the keyboard presents a space bar of text, which also functions as an anchor:

Screenshot used by permission.

Clicking on this anchor reveals another text:

Screenshot used by permission.

Inconsistency

Yet the progression stops here, as the anchor does not lead off of the node. In all of these subversions, ] [mez] [breeze] is playing with the notion of navigational intent. Her anchors, far from being uniform, are disruptive in their individuality. Readers do not have a common language or expectations for navigation in this site. Consequently, each move is an exploration through the work, and each "payoff" of an anchor that leads to new content--even non pay off---pseudoanchors that lead nowhere is imbued with meaning and subtlety that would be stripped if the work used a uniform anchor strategy.

Highlights

] [mez] [breeze] subverts the commonly expected highlighting of an anchor by highlighting certain portions with selective animation:

Screenshot used by permission.

Here the highlight both reveals and conceals, as the me both fades in importance as it is plain yet gains in importance as it is differentiated from the highlighted portion:

Screenshot used by permission.

This plays with the letters inherent in the page. Compare this anchoral content highlighting with the anchoral content movement in I'm Simply Saying [35].