Writing
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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)
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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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A Better Railway for Britain
Writing as founder and coordinator of Bring Back British Rail, Harrison reflects on the last seven years’ campaigning for the public ownership of our railways in this preface for the campaign’s first report, launched in the Houses of Parliament in London on 13 October 2016. (Word count: 663)
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Practising what we Preach
Written by Harrison during the first few months of The Glasgow Effect in 2016, this essay explores the many problems within the higher education system, which were the project’s initial impetus, and the destructive values these promote. It outlines key actions to resolve the contradictions that are preventing us from practising what we preach. (Word count: 4,496)
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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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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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The Art School Handbook
In this essay, written in 2014 during her first year teaching at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Harrison surveys the troubled global landscape of higher education and sketches out her vision for The Art School of the 21st Century. (Word count: 5,668)
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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)
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Work-a-thon for the Self-Employed
Harrison identifies how she gradually became more politicised as a result of her growing awareness of her own labour conditions and ‘self-exploitation‘ within the post-Fordist world of work. An edited version of this text was published in the ‘Activism‘ chapter of Playing For Time (p.205-206) in 2015. (Word count: 711)
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Eat 22: The Personal is Political
One decade on, Harrison reflects on her seminal 2002 project Eat 22, and examines her persistent interest in ‘consumption‘ in recent works: Vending Machine, The Other Forecast and Anti-Capitalist Aerobics. An edited version of this text was published in the ‘Food Growing‘ chapter of Playing For Time (p.177-179) in 2015. (Word count: 692)
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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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Bring Back British Rail
As founder of the Bring Back British Rail campaign, Harrison was invited to write about the public ownership of our railways for the Green Party of England & Wales’s The New Home Front II (p.41-42) in 2012, which looks to the post-war period for lessons on how to tackle climate change now. (Word count: 709)
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A Good Climate for Business
Written by Harrison for Artsadmin in response to her residency at Two Degrees festival in 2011. This text details her attempts to explore the relationship between capitalism and climate change, which led to the development of Work-a-thon for the Self-Employed and Early Warning Signs. (Word count: 2,758)
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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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Altermodernism: The Age of Stupid
Published by Furtherfield in 2009, Harrison’s second essay for her Masters at Glasgow School of Art uses Nicolas Bourriaud’s Altermodern exhibition at Tate Britain as a paradigm for exploring the artworld institution’s lack of acknowledgement and action over climate change. (Word count: 2,528)
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Confessions of a Recovering Data Collector
Harrison edited the first book about her work Confessions of a Recovering Data Collector, published by Plymouth College of Art in April 2009. The book profiles twelve of her former ‘data collecting‘ projects, for which she obsessively recorded information about different aspects of her daily routine. It is introduced by artist and curator Hannah Jones and features a specially commissioned essay by Sally O’Reilly. (Word count: 5,394)
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How Can We Continue Making Art?
Harrison addresses the fundamental question of whether we can justify the continued production of art in the age of climate change, for her first essay whilst studying for her Masters at Glasgow School of Art. Published by Nottingham Visual Arts Magazine in 2009. (Word count: 3,106)
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Part-time
Harrison’s exposé of the door-to-door sales racket masterminded by the Cobra Group. Written in 2006 for her blog whist participating in the Part-time project commissioned by Prime, for which she was required to spend four weeks working ‘undercover’ in a low-wage job. (Word count: 3,774)
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Day-to-Day Data
Harrison edited the publication for her 2005 curatorial project Day-to-Day Data. Featuring the work of twenty artists who ‘collect, list, database and absurdly analyse the data of everyday life’, the publication offers an introduction to the project’s key themes and an overview of each artist’s work. Harrison wrote the Curator’s Introduction as well as an Introduction to her new work for the show, the Daily Data Display Wall. (Word count: 736)
