The definition of anarchic, as determined by the Cambridge Dictionary, is “not showing respect for official or accepted rules, behaviour, organizations, leaders, etc”. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as “lacking order, regularity, or definiteness”. When we look at dictionary definitions, we see an idea of how the word might be used, the social construction and implication of the word, in this case anarchic. However, dictionary definitions do not always include direct historical context of what the word actually means and stands for in relation to historical conditions. For example, the dictionary definition of communism was weaponized during the cold war to be antithetical to everything that is western democracy. The same thing can be said about anarchic systems because they challenge the social and political power structures that already exist.
Dictionary definitions give us a sense of the social usage and implications point us in the way of digging deeper into linguistic history. The key piece of information missing in these dictionary definitions is that anarchic doesn’t show respect to the current official rules or government. Anarchy sees the faults within the currently socioeconomic and political system. Anarchy, to put it simply, is order. Anarchy proposes an organization of society based on voluntary cooperation without political institutions or hierarchical government. Therefore, the anarchic archive looks to remove the hierarchical nature of traditional archives and introduce the cooperation of those who have been left behind by history. Ulf Vierke, director of Iwalewahaus, the center for contemporary African Arts at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, describes the anarchic archive as follows:
“If anarchy is understood as the absence of power but not of rules, an anarchic archive could be a space where the distinction between production, archivization, and reception would be fading. A more liquid archive might lose the aura of the object but could also offer a richer cosmos of information. A major characteristic of this archive being more permeable allows the content of the archive to be connected to and enriched by information outside the archive” (13).
Because the anarchic element challenges power structures and offers a new avenue, then doing the anarchic archive is a form of digital activism and resistance. A space is created for othered voices and participants to have full participation. An anarchic archive would essentially create and promote a more horizontalist form of historical documentation, one that cultivates the autonomous, voluntary cooperation dimension of anarchy. When we consider the ethics of oral history and oral documentation we also have to consider the systems of power and power of analysis. We consider too, the power we have in invited spaces and the power we have in uninvited spaces. Overall, the anarchic archive highlights ethical and moral frameworks in its lack of a structured power system that dominates that allows a diversity of thought, representation and history.