Three Block Cop Complex is a line from Kathy Acker’s Stripper’s Chaos Dirge. The text describes a journey and a loss of control, a torren- tial flow of sex and vomit in poetic austerity. The plosives themselves build a rhythm of the grid, the streets, surveillance systems, neat rows of products and seasonal decorations. It’s about figuring out how to act when you’ve basically lost control.
Whenever I start to think that my prepping fascination, preparing for assaults or natural disasters, might tip from just a preoccupation with control fantasies to actually becoming a control fantasy itself, I forget my umbrella at home. And I remember that this is not something I need to worry about.
This correlationis interestingbecause it alludes to a tipping point between engagement and assimilation,reading and identification,representationand repetition,observance and empowerment. Critical debate is negated by its opposite; affirmation studies that make what we consider normal seem strange.
Choosing what you take on is the first and most important decision when it comes to this complex. There isn’t always a follow-up to Milena Büsch’s initial decision. Or maybe just one or two. The number of steps are tightly measured. Three blocks or fewer is all it takes to develop a complex structure.
–Gaby Tront
