The map which follows, is an expression of the metaphor of conflict as it relates to the Old Miami Bar. Through extensive research of the Old Miami’s history, as well as the related histories of Cass Corridor and Detroit, conflict emerged as a useful and beneficial metaphor for understanding this space. By clicking on specific areas of the following map (featured on the main page), one will be able to view the writing, pictures, cartoons, and films with which each area is intimately associated. Thus, this map facilitates the means by which others can experience the Old Miami as I have. These passages evolve around various conceptions of conflict in relationship to the bar. Although this is the most convenient means by which one can navigate this space, this website also provides the opportunity to navigate by passage (Each passage is posted under “Pages” in the right hand column). In addition, this site includes numerous pictures which serve as links to other passages as well as outside sources, and material.
In consideration of the expansive framework which guides thoughts about Detroit, Cass Avenue, and the Old Miami itself, this work exists as the result of an effort to distort and confront various stereotypes, and stereotypical images. In addition, this is the space imagined, as I have perceived it, and not necessarily the Old Miami itself. This is the space as it has become accessible to me through research, perpetual thought, and first-hand experience. Although it is informed by the Old Miami, it is significant that one remembers its basis in imagination. This is similar to the way that Barthes proceeds in the Empire of Signs, when he suggests that it is not Japan itself on which he writes. It is not necessarily that this text will function to write The Old Miami into existence, but rather, that it will provide a new way of examining an imaginary space.
Acknowledgments: Necessarily, I must acknowledge the various authors and texts which influenced the production process…Roland Barthes – Empire of Signs, “The Eiffel Tower”/ Massumi – “The Autonomy of Affect”/ the provocative map collections featured in You Are Here
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