success
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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)
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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.
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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)
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Ethics: Extremism & Compromise
A talk by Ellie Harrison exploring the relationship between her life choices and her work as an artist for Artquest’s Practice 360° programme at Camden Arts Centre in London.
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How the ‘Them’ became ‘Us’
In this short text, written for ShareAction’s Listen to USS! divestment campaign in 2014, Harrison exposes how compromises can so easily occur when one grows-up and gets a ‘proper job‘. (Word count: 998)
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Counter-Hegemonic Propaganda Machine
A manifesto of sorts outlining Harrison’s values and strategies for approaching life and art-making. Written in 2012 in response to a provocation by psychologist Tim Kasser for The Art of Life (p.19-21) published by Mission Models Money & Common Cause. (Word count: 1,229)
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For the Love of It
A polemic by Harrison to conclude Artquest’s For The Love Of It conference exploring the various factors which can and should motivate artists.
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Relentless Innovation
Devised by Harrison for the The List Hot 100 Party at the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh after being voted No.93 in this annual list of Scotland’s ‘creative talent’. A ‘propaganda striptease’ of sorts, this artist’s talk / performance attempts to address the relentless innovation cycles such hitlists celebrate, and to explore the detrimental impact this obsession with the new might have on our mental health and the world around us.
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Best of the Rest
The final instalment in her series of 4 LIVE Broadcasts made over the course of a year (December 2010 – November 2011). Harrison draws on recurring themes from her previous broadcasts, to introduce the ideas behind Oliver Braid’s exhibition I’ll Look Forward To It and tell the story of her own work-life successes and failures in 2011. (Duration: 27:50)
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Fair Game
An experiment in ‘value’ devised specifically for the context of the art fair. Fair Game is an endurance performance which sees Harrison gamble her entire artist’s fee for the project with fair goers, by setting-up and running a hoopla stall within the fair grounds.
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The Artists’ Bond
Harrison is the Agent for this life-long speculative funding scheme for UK-based artists. The Artists’ Bond was established in 2011 by the forty members of the Artists’ Lottery Syndicate (which ran from 1 July 2010 – 1 July 2011), who together chose to re-invest their annual winnings in a new collective venture devised to create a bond between them over the course of their careers.
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Trajectories
Trajectories is a web-based application which enables you to compare your life to other people’s and test how you match up against their achievements. Enter your details and watch your career trajectory visualised alongside those of your heroes or rivals from the past and present. Check to see if you are still on track for ‘success’ and schedule email reminders for future dates to remind you of your goals.
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Artists Anonymous
Artists Anonymous was a support group for Glasgow-based artists co-founded, coordinated and attended by Harrison over the course of two years. It took place every three weeks at the CCA in Glasgow and aimed to provide a ‘safe space for its members to speak candidly, honestly and confidentially to others about the anxieties and stresses of their professional lives’.
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How to Reconcile the Careerist Mentality with our Impending Doom
27 Jan 2011
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Scratch Cards
Harrison made this ‘interactive’ work Scratch Cards as one of the outcomes of the Digital Media Labs residency in Hull from 24-30 October 2010, at which ten artists were encouraged to develop creative applications for touch screen technologies. Scratch Cards was created using Processing with production assistance from Ben Dalton.
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Artists’ Lottery Syndicate
On 1 April 2010, Harrison launched the Artists’ Lottery Syndicate forming a forty-strong collective of UK based artists joining forces to play The National Lottery over the course of a year, with the hope of hitting the jackpot. The Syndicate ran from 1 July 2010 – 1 July 2011 and was a fun and social group activity, which operated as a gentle critique of artists’ relationships to the economy, as well as a potential money-maker.
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Trajectories: How to Reconcile the Careerist Mentality with Our Impending Doom
Harrison’s 2010 thesis, published in four parts by Furtherfield, addresses the ethical implications of continuing to choose the ‘career’ of artist in the 21st Century and presents her manifesto for how best to move forward. (Word count: 8,284)
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Artist’s Training Programme™
A spoof website promoting a revolutionary new self-help training regime for artists. The Artist’s Training Programme™ has been researched and developed by Ellie Harrison BA PGDip, alongside two of the world’s foremost self-improvement gurus – Paul McKenna PhD and Dr Ryuta Kawashima. Follow for four week programme today and transform your practice forever!
Project website