Annotation

Hakim Bey, T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism

Pirates have their own community, their own space/Utopia. No rules or political boundaries. This is a good example of what Hakim Bey TAZ means with TAZ. For me, the temporary autonomous zone is a piece of temporary freedom on an abstract place that is invisible.

Hakim asks whether there is a world exists without rules and politics. How would we see a stateless state? None of our revolutions seemed to be the solution. They are permanent and belonged to the system. The difference between revolution and rebellion, is that rebellion is temporary. TAZ comes closer in the turn of a rebellion. The mentality of Hit and Run.

Every piece of the world is already occupied by political power. The map is the abstract representation of political power. TAZ has no fixed place. It should come off of faith and place. It should be invisible to the political power. It must be temporary or else it discovered and destroyed by political power. Away from the rules. If TAZ get crushed, he will re-form elsewhere.

TAZ belongs to no one and it is hard to find in one place. It has no place on a geographical map, you cannot appoint him. It can also be in your brains, or an exchange of memorial between different brains. TAZ could be anywhere and could be anybody. That is very abstract, but also its strength. It does exist somewhere in space(geographic, social, cultural, imaginal, web-informational)- always at the intersections of many forces, fringes, borders. In short, not just a fantastical dream place, but a place with real manifestations.

TAZ is a possibility of hope within the existing system. Freedom of creating life. Life of abstract ideas and exchanges. According to Hakim, information exchange is essential for TAZ. The Web is an open structure of information exchange. The Net, the opposite of Web, is a hierarchy.

Hakim can define TAZ. It is utopian in the sense of intensification of everyday life. However, he made three conditions.

1. Psychological liberation: We have experienced the ways in which we can be kept low and the ways in which we can keep.

2. Counter -net has to spend. The web is the weapon of TAZ so it should go higher.

3. Device control must be balanced. While the stream disappears we must be ready.

_Notes

The way Hakim Bey describes fits in to the idea of utopian or TAZ. The romance and poetry is in the air as you read the text. But I do wonder of TAZ exists. Am I encounter him or I been there before? While seeing the documentary "Away from Keyboard" from Pirate Bay I noticed something. Pirate Bay tries to make a visible TAZ but because he's become apparent he immediately destroyed by the political power. Also Richard Stellman has tried this, but he still formed a system that political power wants. The original idea of Linux and Copyleft is TAZ. Only they are visible and therefore failed. Maybe I'm wrong, but I certainly see similarities back at TAZ.

_Reference:

Bey, Hakim. T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Ravijn, 1994.

TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard. Dir. Simon Klose. Perf. Gottfrid Svartholm, Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde. Martin Persson, 2003.