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)