"In the self-critical work The Art of M[ez]ang.elle.ing, Australian artist/writer Mez describes her process as one in which technique becomes theory. And, in turn Mez's theory itself becomes the technique for a sort of serial becoming.

'...technique b-came theory;
fiction fact N the dis.tinct[ure]ion e-rrelevant. emailing turned fromme fictionalstruc.t[o]ur.ez 2 cracking otherz wurdz, re-alignin them, reversin, refemmeing in2 a medical/sci-fi mash; mixing theor[.M.z]ee in2 postfiction, faction]... '

Brackets and alternative spellings interrupt the transmission as the process overcodes and reveals polysemic potentialities within the primary message. The polysemic values are generally nested within "[]" brackets with the primary message resting on the outside. The primary and additive values are both prone to alteration - alphabetic characters are replaced with numerals, "and" becomes "N", and in what could be a subtle reference to Barthes - "S" is sometimes replaced with "Z". The effect is a tightly woven text(ile) with warp and woof marked by differences between the primary and bracketed transmissions. Within and without the "[]", the text(ile) is punctuated with stray threads of neologistic play.

Mez's essay and method indicates an awareness of the hyper-status of inscription and document as they apply to the Internet. Not only are lines between fact and fiction blurred here - identity is introduced into indeterminacy, turned into a condition of writing. It is important to note that the author has chosen to write this critical observation of technique using the creative method that is the subject of its critique. In fact most of Mez's online writing production whether it be creative, critical or correspondence is written in this style. To a certain extent, this reinforces the 'tweening' notion of the thesis -blurring, stirring the critical with the creative - veiling identity with a baroque syntactic style...

...The appropriation of email correspondence is fairly common in what is being discussed here as 'codework.' The use of email lists for the source and distribution of some of the work places the Author at a fulcrum, as processor or mediator between dispersals across the apparatus - playing a game of hot potato with digital information. This form of conductivity, rather than the polysemic intentions of the text, is what locates the work as electronic. Certainly, the work is encoded, but the Author originated process produces a pseudocode rather than one that is directly related to the Internet apparatus. We are not confronted with serrations of HTML or JavaScript, but with the results of a subjective parsing that extends context, while jamming and complicating the primary transmission. The text undermines its own authority by leaving the reader pleasantly undecided whether it is inscription or encryption they are faced with."

-Talan Memmott in E_RUPTURE://Codework -Serration in Electronic Literature, _Codework_ [American Book Review, Sept/Oct 2001]