Abstract
Halberstam’s (2022) aesthetic and semiotic reimagining of collapse explores the concept of prestige property- a property that has been designed to suit the desires of investors, architects, and designers, not the needs of those inhabiting the spaces. In this manuscript, we discuss the aesthetics of collapse as Halberstam defines them, extrapolating his examples and providing what might be understood as “(arts) educational collapse”. We employ Halberstam’s concept of the prestige property as a metaphor for the arts and education: that formal educational spaces in the United States of America are prestige properties, created for political and social desires of oppression and control and not for LIVING- and therefore spaces destined/designed for collapse, followed by a discussion of art education’s destiny with collapse- or collapsing- and the semiotic shift from an understanding of collapse as an ending point to one where the challenges of collapse are met not through reform and repair of spaces deemed “uninhabitable” but through refusal: a refusal of spaces as uninhabitable. This refusal requires a radical imagination, or “the ability to imagine the world, life, and social institutions not as they are but as they might otherwise be” (Khasnabish & Haiven, 2014). The authors look to the arts to signal pathways through the challenges of collapse. How does one activate a radical pedagogical imagination of collapse as imminent, fruitful, and hopeful?
