Ellie Harrison

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Tag Archives: climate change

  • Installations
    Tonnes of carbon… installed in Meadowbank for Edinburgh Art Festival in 2020

    Tonnes of carbon produced by the personal transportation of a ‘professional artist’

    This graph was first compiled as the central illustration of Harrison’s 2019 book The Glasgow Effect: A Tale of Class, Capitalism & Carbon Footprint to illustrate the artist’s increasing amount of travel in the years running up to her 2016 project and the dramatic impact it had on reducing her carbon footprint for transport. It was updated in 2020 for display at Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • Writing

    Artist as Active Citizen

    Harrison reflects on The Glasgow Effect for this new text commissioned to launch a-n‘s year-long research project with AirSpace Gallery: Artists Make Change (May 2020 – May 2021). It is published alongside a new text by Dave Beech reflecting on the history of political art, to provoke discussion about artists’ roles in affecting social change. (Word count: 1,540)

  • 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)

  • Performance / Events

    The Glasgow Effect

    The Glasgow Effect was a multi-layered ‘research project‘, which took place in 2016. Its central provocation was that Harrison would refuse to travel beyond Glasgow’s city limits, or use any vehicles except her bike, for a whole calendar year (1 January – 31 December 2016). On 8 January 2017, she gave a talk about the work at the Glasgow Film Theatre. On 4 November 2019, she published a book providing the complete context for her thinking and action.

  • Lectures

    Sustainability in Practice

    Speaking at the Culture & Sustainability event organised by Julie’s Bicycle at The Tetley in Leeds, Harrison discusses the challenges and consequences of putting ‘sustainability’ into practice; specifically: her life-long project Early Warning Signs, her Environmental Policy and how her breaches of its Transportation section led to The Glasgow Effect.

  • Exhibition

    For Love or Money

    Created in 2015 to highlight the main causes of Harrison’s breaches to her own Environmental Policy and the amount of carbon each produced, For Love or Money paved the way for The Glasgow Effect in 2016.

  • Social / Networks

    Radical Renewable Art + Activism Fund

    Initiated by Harrison in 2015, the Radical Renewable Art + Activism Fund (RRAAF) aims to be a new and autonomous funding scheme, which uses renewable energy to offer ‘no strings attached’ grants for art-activist projects in the UK.
    Project website

  • Writing

    Venice Biennale: Think Local, Act Global!

    Harrison self-critically reflects on the experience of taking part in the 2015 Venice Biennale (as part of Doug Fishbone’s Leisure Land Golf) in this short text for Press Room, which laid the groundwork for The Glasgow Effect in 2016. (Word count: 760)

  • Installations
    Life Raft in action at Venice Biennale in 2015

    Life Raft

    Designed as the final hole of Doug Fishbone’s Leisure Land Golf, Life Raft – a scale map of the UK floating in the adjacent canal – offers a safe haven to immigrant golf balls that can make the treacherous crossing.
    Project website

  • Performance / Events
    Consensus decision-making facilitated by Tripod

    Dark Days

    An ‘experiment in communal living’, this event offered one hundred participants the unique opportunity to stay the night in the great hall of the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow as part of a pop-up community.
    Project website

  • Performance / Events

    The Global Race

    The Global Race is an absurd vision of an Olympic games of the future, in which the brilliance of human ‘innovation‘ means we no longer need to break a sweat! At an athletics track in central Berlin, a group of ‘elite athletes’ and members of the public competed in a series of races on Segways.

  • Exhibition

    Progress Report

    Created in 2014 by analysing more than a decade of personal data, Progress Report reveals how, despite espousing “sustainability“, Harrison’s own lifestyle (measured in ‘work’ – no. emails sent and ‘leisure’ – no. lengths swimming) has simply been mirroring capitalism’s “growth fetish”.

  • Political Campaigns, Writing

    Power For The People!

    In this comment piece for The Ecologist, Harrison details how her concerns about climate change led her to start campaigning for the public ownership of our essential services and infrastructure with Bring Back British Rail and Power For The People. (Word count: 766)

  • Performance / Events

    The Other Forecast

    Recorded LIVE in front of a green screen, Harrison’s The Other Forecast offers her summary of the absurd consequences of capitalism, as a warning about the future we are heading towards if the system continues unchecked. Broadcast on the Big Screen at MediaCityUK in November 2013 as part of The Other Forecast project – a collaboration between Harrison & John O’Shea.
    Project website

  • Political Campaigns

    Power For The People

    Harrison launched Bring Back British Rail’s ‘sister campaign’ Power for the People in October 2013 in order to popularise the idea of returning the UK’s energy production and supply to public ownership. Together the campaigns aim to ‘join the dots’ between our most carbon-intensive industries and services to make evident the need to remove the profit-motive from all of them in order to meet the challenges of climate change.
    Campaign website

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News

Ellie Harrison is an artist & activist based in Glasgow (UK). In January 2023 she won the Stephen Fry Public Engagement Award for her ‘Bus Regulation: The Musical’ Trilogy in Greater Manchester, Strathclyde & Merseyside (2019 – 2022).
In autumn 2021, a new and updated 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. 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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So exciting to see the original 'Bus Regulation: The Musical' feature on Channel 4 News tonight! 🥳 It is four years since I staged it at Manchester Art Gallery in 2019 as part of the Better Buses for Greater Manchester campaign. I’ll be back at the gallery this Sunday 24 Sept, 3pm to give a special talk to celebrate the launch of the first phase of the Bee Network 🚍🐝 Don't miss this historic day! Book FREE tickets: beenetwork.eventbrite.com ... See MoreSee Less

1 week ago
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Watch the full clip explaining the disaster of bus deregulation here: www.facebook.com/BetterBusesforGM/posts/710724034418087

Thought of you as soon as I saw it on the news!

Dont miss Bus Regulation: The Musical & the fight for Greater Manchesters buses - my special artist’s talk, screening & discussion at Manchester Art Gallery on Sunday 24 September to celebrate the launch of the Bee Network 🚍🚉🚆🐝 Find out more and book FREE tickets: beenetwork.eventbrite.com

Don't miss Bus Regulation: The Musical & the fight for Greater Manchester's buses - my special artist’s talk, screening & discussion at Manchester Art Gallery on Sunday 24 September to celebrate the launch of the Bee Network 🚍🚉🚆🐝 Find out more and book FREE tickets: beenetwork.eventbrite.com ... See MoreSee Less

3 weeks ago
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I've been a tenant at Wasps Artists' Studios - Hanson Street, Glasgow since the end of 2010. I'm proud to be supporting this artist-led campaign to #SaveOurStudios ✊ Please help by signing & sharing our petition 👇 ... See MoreSee Less

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Help save artists' studios across Scotland

you.38degrees.org.uk

2 months ago
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Great coverage of the #SaveOurStudios campaign in this Saturday's HeraldScotland 👇https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23748772.buzz-angry-wasps-glasgows-artists-fight-work/

Good luck Ellie

Artists benefit Glasgow. Save their studios!!

Signed!

Ellie do you have a E mail address ?

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Twelve years on. I'm still loving being the Agent for The Artists' Bond 🥳 ... See MoreSee Less

artistsbond.co.uk

artistsbond.co.uk

2 months ago
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When I first saw this I thought we'd won £225 million!

This Weds 2 August, 7pm - I'm delighted to talking about my book The Glasgow Effect: A Tale of Class, Capitalism & Carbon Footprint with the brilliant Katie Gallogly-Swan as part of Govanhill International Festival and Carnival 🥳 Get your FREE TICKET here 👇 ... See MoreSee Less

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

www.eventbrite.co.uk

2 months ago
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Commodities

  • The Glasgow Effect (First Edition) The Glasgow Effect: A Tale of Class, Capitalism & Carbon Footprint £10.00 – £14.00
  • National Museum of Roller Derby T-Shirt National Museum of Roller Derby T-Shirt £10.00
  • National Museum of Roller Derby Sticker National Museum of Roller Derby Sticker £1.00
  • 4 Live Broadcasts DVD 4 LIVE Broadcasts DVD £20.00
  • Radical Renewable Art + Activism Fund Sticker £3.00
  • Hen Weekend Bag Hen Weekend Bag + Badge £10.00
  • Channel Swimming Challenge Logbook Channel Swimming Challenge Logbook £2.00
  • Hen Weekend Badge Hen Weekend Badge £1.00
  • Tea Blog Sticker Tea Blog Sticker £1.00

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  • Environmental Policy
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