Ellie Harrison

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  • 2019 Writing

    The Glasgow Effect: A Tale of Class, Capitalism & Carbon Footprint

    On 4 November 2019, Luath Press published Harrison’s first book. Inspired by her 2016 ‘durational performance’ The Glasgow Effect – for which she refused to travel beyond Glasgow’s city limits, or use any vehicles except her bike, for the whole calendar year – the book provides the complete context for her thinking and action. (Word count: 119,000)

  • 2010 Performance / Events

    General Election Drinking Game

    An endurance performance devised by Harrison to coincide with the 2010 UK general election. Four ‘players’ represented the main political parties – each attempting to drink one shot of lager for every seat in parliament their party won, live as the results came in throughout the night.
    Project website

  • 2010 Lectures

    Hedonism vs. Asceticism: A control freak’s guide to the MFA

    A lecture by Harrison as part of the Master of Fine Art (MFA) screening programme at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow. Detailing her experience of studying on the MFA course at Glasgow School of Art from 2008 – 2010, the lecture offers an insight into how she set about organising both her time and the contents of her mind, and explores her tempestuous relationships with ‘work’ and ‘play’.

  • 2006 Installations
    Daily Data Display Room installed at Danielle Arnaud Contemporary, London Art in 2006

    Daily Data Display Room

    For the duration of the Day-to-Day Data exhibition at Danielle Arnaud contemporary art in London, Ellie collected information about 10 elements of her everyday routine. Each morning the results from the previous day were emailed to the gallery and used to reconfigure and adjust the 10 different objects comprising the installation. Over the course of the exhibition, the display aimed to test and visualise an experiment as to whether there was a correlation between different elements of this information.

  • 2005 Installations
    Daily Data Display Wall installed at Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham in 2005

    Daily Data Display Wall

    For the duration of the Day-to-Day Data exhibition in Nottingham and Portsmouth, Harrison collected data about 20 different elements of her daily life onto Daily Data Log sheets. Each morning the Log Sheet results were emailed to the gallery and used to reconfigure the 20 different items in the installation, so that it took on a slightly different appearance each day of the exhibition.

  • 2003 Installations
    The Monthly Sculptures installed at Goldsmiths College, London in 2003

    The Monthly Sculptures Determined by the Daily Quantification Records

    Throughout 2003, Harrison also collected data about 14 different elements of her everyday life onto Daily Quantification Records. Each month this data was converted into a set of averages, which was then applied to a set of scales and systems to output the specifications for a monthly sculpture. The first six months’ worth of sculptures was installed at the 2003 Goldsmiths Postgraduate Degree Show.

News

Ellie Harrison is an artist & activist based in Glasgow (UK). In 2023 she won the Stephen Fry Public Engagement Award for her ‘Bus Regulation: The Musical’ Trilogy in Greater Manchester, Strathclyde & Merseyside (2019 – 2023).
In 2021 the Second Edition of Harrison’s book The Glasgow Effect: A Tale of Class, Capitalism & Carbon Footprint was launched at the UN Habitat’s Innovate4Cities conference to mark the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, and chosen by the Ecologist for the Resurgence Book Club. Her Early Warning Signs were also exhibited at Glasgow’s Mitchell Library during COP26 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the project.
Harrison’s Vending Machine continues to feature in the 😹 LMAO exhibition exploring humour in data visualisation at the Open Data Institute in London.

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Ellie Harrison

Ellie Harrison

Artist, activist & author of 'The Glasgow Effect: A Tale of Class, Capitalism & Carbon Footprint' 📚

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It was great to meet Paul from PalFox Photography last month when he visited me at Wasps Studios Hanson Street to take these fab pictures 📷

My studio has always been more like an office than anything else, going back to my very first one in Glasgow in the Barnes Building at The Glasgow School of Art from 2008-2010. I bought ‘The Boss’ mug back then as I was interested in the aesthetics of the corporate world and exploring what it meant to be self-employed worker, making pieces like ‘The History of Financial Crises’ (2009), ‘Desk Chair Parade’ (2009) and ‘Desk Chair Disco’ (2011), and the ‘Work-a-thon for the Self-Employed’ (2011).

I’m not making much art these days as nearly all my time goes into local community activism, particularly with the Glasgow Community Energy co-operative which I helped get up-and-running during the pandemic, and with the Get Glasgow Moving public transport campaign which I co-founded in 2016.

Over the summer I’m preparing for Get Glasgow Moving’s 10th Anniversary Exhibition at the New Glasgow Society, which opens on Thurs 17 September as part of Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival 2026.

I love using my creative skills to further causes that I’m passionate about. Over the years I've designed many campaign materials – including this ‘Trans-Clyde Links You Clyde-Wide’ T-Shirt, which is based on the original marketing for the Trans-Clyde integrated public transport network launched by the Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive in 1979, the year that I was born.

The integrated public transport networks which most big city-regions had were wilfully destroyed in 1986 with the deregulation (and later privatisation) of buses. This was one of the most destructive of all Margaret Thatcher’s policies, and it is shameful that The Scottish Government has continued to maintain it for more than quarter of a century of devolution. With the Better Buses for Strathclyde campaign, we are doing all we can to get our region’s buses back in public control.

If you like the T-Shirt, come down to the exhibition in September and you’ll be able to get one there! And, if you'd like to have a nosey round my studio, I'm also planning to take part in the Open Studios at Wasps Artists' Studios - Hanson Street, Glasgow on Sat 3 October 😊 See you there! @followers
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2 days ago
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This 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝟱 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 in Glasgow! 📢 I'm delighted to be talking about my work with Get Glasgow Moving & Glasgow Community Energy at the 𝘙𝘦𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘪𝘵𝘺: 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘎𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘨𝘰𝘸? conference at the University of Glasgow 🎟️ Tickets are free, so come join us 👇 @followers ... See MoreSee Less

1 month ago
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Don't miss our Better Buses National Hustings tonight! 👇 You can catch me on the livestream at 7pm:
📺 www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rFh2CjP_Xs @followers
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3 months ago
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"We need The Scottish Government to support our transport authority, SPT, to bring the bus network back into public control, so they can deliver a fully-integrated, accessible and affordable public transport network across the region like Greater Manchester’s new ‘Bee Network’, or the recently released plans for South Yorkshire’s ‘People’s Network’" — Ellie Harrison

I was delighted to contribute to Gerry Hassan's article for Bella Caledonia about 𝘈 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘝𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘎𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘨𝘰𝘸 👏 Read online here 👇
bellacaledonia.org.uk/2026/03/31/time-for-a-new-deal-and-vision-for-glasgow @followers
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3 months ago
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Calling all A-N members! Don't miss this online artist's talk and workshop on '𝗔𝗿𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲' which I'm co-hosting this Thursday 2 April, 11am-1pm 🌍 Find out more 👇 @followers ... See MoreSee Less

4 months ago
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Are you in Glasgow t

Are you in Glasgow this evening? Come along to this free screening of the brilliant POWER Film at The Glasgow School of Art 👇 I'll be introducing the event, talking about my work with Glasgow Community Energy and chairing a Q&A with artist and filmmaker Hilary Powell 😊 @followersSave the date! 🌞 We're delighted to be collaborating with Friends of the Earth Scotland to bring you Turning homes into renewable Power Stations: film screening & Discussion 👇
🗓️ Thurs 12 March 2026, 5:30pm
📍 Reid Building, The Glasgow School of Art
🎟️ Book free tickets: powerstationGSA.eventbrite.com @followers
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4 months ago
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It’s this blatant injustice that motivates all my campaigning 😡 Why should people in the poorest parts of Glasgow have to pay 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 for an essential public service as bankers in the City of London? Shame on The Scottish Government for presiding over this system for more than 25 years! @followers ... See MoreSee Less

6 months ago
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Ten years ago today, I was just beginning my year-long durational performance #TheGlasgowEffect which was to become one of the most controversial publicly-funded artworks that Scotland had ever seen.

Part psychological experiment, part protest, part strike, for the whole of 2016, I vowed not to travel beyond Glasgow’s city limits, or use any vehicles except my bike.

I described my experience of starting #TheGlasgowEffect, including being at the centre of the social media stooshie it provoked, in ‘When the Chips Hit the Fan’ – Chapter 5 of my book ‘The Glasgow Effect: A Tale of Class, Capitalism & Carbon Footprint’ published by Luath Press 📚

We have just printed a newly updated version of the Second Edition, so do have a read if you’d like to be transported back to that moment in January 2016... Find out more at: ellieharrison.com/book @followers
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6 months ago
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Commodities

  • Tea Blog Sticker Tea Blog Sticker £1.00
  • Gold Card Adventures Poster Gold Card Adventures Poster £5.00
  • Counterpoint Poster Counterpoint Poster £10.00
  • Hen Weekend Badge Hen Weekend Badge £2.00
  • National Museum of Roller Derby Sticker National Museum of Roller Derby Sticker £3.00
  • Day-to-Day Data Book Day-to-Day Data Book £20.00
  • Channel Swimming Challenge Logbook Channel Swimming Challenge Logbook £3.00
  • Hen Weekend Bag Hen Weekend Bag £10.00
  • Confessions of a Recovering Data Collector Book Confessions of a Recovering Data Collector £10.00

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