Harrison first became known for her 2002 work
Eat 22, for which she photographed and recorded information about everything she ate for a year. She published the images online on a weekly basis throughout that year as an early example of
photo blogging. The project received international attention, featuring in the press in India, Taiwan, Czech Republic, France, Sweden, the US and across the UK. In 2003, the high-speed animated film of all 1,640 of the
Eat 22 photos was included in the exhibition
Treat Yourself at the
Science Museum, London and in 2007 was put on permanent display at the
Wellcome Collection, London. Harrison then went on to complete a series of large-scale "data collecting" projects including
Gold Card Adventures (September 2002 – September 2003). She undertook this next project the year before the automated
Oystercard system was introduced on London Transport, by manually recording the total distance of all the journeys she made on
London Underground and on local buses for a period of one year, which amounted to more than 9,210 km. The resulting exhibition
Gold Card Adventures (named after the yearly
Travelcard that she used), took place at
Piccadilly Circus tube station in 2005 as part of the
Art on the Underground scheme. In 2005 to 2006, Harrison curated
Day-to-Day Data, a group exhibition of "artists who collect list, database and absurdly analyse the data of everyday life". The exhibition toured the UK, visiting Danielle Arnaud contemporary art, London,
Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth and Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham. It was accompanied by a publication, a web-based exhibition and a symposium that took place at the
Institute of Contemporary Arts, London on 18 March 2006. Harrison's early "data collecting" projects were examples of what is now referred to as
life-logging or the
quantified self. At the height of this work in 2005, she created the
Daily Data Logger character described as "an enthusiastic, data-collecting obsessive so keen on measuring / quantifying the things that surround her that she permanently dresses in a tracksuit (for easy manoeuvrability) and wears a utility belt jam-packed with data collecting devices". Her final major "data collecting" project was the three-year
Tea Blog (1 January 2006 – 31 December 2008), for which she published online what she was thinking about every time she had a hot drink. As a very early example of
microblogging, the popularity of Harrison's
Tea Blog, prefigured that of the
Twitter platform, which did not launch until mid 2006. In 2006, Harrison ceremoniously rejected her "data collecting" methodologies and entered into a period of self-reflection and re-invention in order to develop a "healthier and more outward looking practice". including launching her own ongoing "active Twitter boycott" in July 2008.
Later work Although she still retains a core interest in
data visualisation, Harrison's recent work is more overtly political. She has used a mixture of sculpture, installation and live performance to respond to the British culture she grew up in and its dominant political and economic systems. Her all-night live performance
General Election Drinking Game coincided with the
2010 United Kingdom general election in order to offer an alternative commentary on the results. In 2011 her installation
A Brief History of Privatisation, which used a circle of electric massage chairs to re-enact the history of UK public service policy over the last century, was exhibited at
Watermans Arts Centre,
Edinburgh Art Festival and Vane, Newcastle. She collaborated with British comedian
Josie Long to create an alternative live "tour" of the exhibition. Harrison often uses deliberately playful and accessible techniques to animate what could otherwise be seen as dull or obscure economic information. Her 2009 installation
The History of Financial Crises, (first exhibited at Mejan Labs, Stockholm for Harrison's two-person show
Transfers & Actions with
Casey Reas), used a row of popcorn making machines to re-enact the history of capitalism over the last century. Harrison's
Vending Machine (2009) has been exhibited at venues across the UK and Ireland and features an old vending machine reprogrammed (using an
Arduino board controlled by a
Pure Data patch) to release free crisps when search terms relating to the recession make the headlines on the BBC News RSS feed. It now features in the permanent public art collection at the
Open Data Institute, London. In 2012, Harrison researched the history of UK public spending on the arts for
The Redistribution of Wealth, an interactive installation shown at
Tate Britain, London as part of the
Late at Tate series. In 2014, she responded to the
Referendum on Scottish Independence in the piece
After the Revolution, Who Will Clean Up the Mess? at
Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh. The installation featured a row of confetti cannons connected to a central detonation button, which would only be activated on the event of a "Yes" vote. In January 2016, it was announced that Harrison had been given a grant of £15,000 by
Creative Scotland for her project on the
Glasgow effect, causing controversy on social media.
Activism Harrison's growing interest in politics has increasingly moved her to direct political action, to the extent that her practice is now often described as "shifting between the roles of artist, activist and administrator". Harrison began campaigning for the protection of public services in 2008 as one of the leaders of a successful campaign to "Save Victoria Baths" in Nottingham from closure, which resulted in
Nottingham City Council committing £7 million to rebuild a new leisure centre on its existing site. In 2009, whilst studying at
Glasgow School of Art, she began public transport campaigning by launching the
Bring Back British Rail campaign. Motivated by her concerns about climate change and the need to encourage the use of less
carbon-intensive transportation, she aimed to popularise the idea of returning Britain's rail network to public ownership, following its
privatisation in 1994, when Harrison was 15 years old. Harrison has appeared on the Today programme, Sky News, RT News and Russia Today, and on other national and local BBC Radio programmes as the campaign's spokesperson. In 2013 she was invited by
Caroline Lucas MP to sit on "The Future of Our Railways" panel at the annual conference of the
Green Party of England and Wales in Brighton. On 26 April 2015, less than six years after its launch, the Bring Back British Rail campaign reached a milestone of 100,000 supporters on its Facebook page. Later that year, after
Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the
Labour Party, rail re-nationalisation became the
Official Opposition policy. In 2013, Harrison led the "Say NO to Tesco in Scotland" campaign, which began as a protest against the proliferation of small supermarkets in the West end of
Glasgow. The campaign group presented a petition to "stop supermarket expansion on local high streets" to the Public Petitions Committee at the
Scottish Parliament in January 2014. In September 2014, after hearing the petition on three further occasions, the Committee referred it to the Local Government & Regeneration Committee to be considered in the context the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill. In January 2015, due to falling sales and profit warnings in 2014, Tesco announced it was axing plans for eight new stores in Scotland and closing 43 of its smaller stores across the UK.
National Museum of Roller Derby As an exploration of bureaucratic processes, over the last few years Harrison has been involved in the setting-up and running of a number of experimental and fully functional organisations and institutions, Harrison first became involved in the sport of
Women's Flat Track Roller Derby at the start of 2012, when she began training with
Glasgow Roller Derby under the
skater name CH£AP SKATE 79. This coincided with her time as artist in residence at
Glasgow Women's Library as part of the
21 Revolutions project, celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the library. On 14 June 2012 the NMRD was launched, by establishing the library the official home of the UK's first permanent archive of materials and ephemeral relating to this all-female, full-contact sport.
Awards and honours In 2011, Harrison was shortlisted for the
Converse/Dazed Emerging Artists Award with the
Whitechapel Gallery, London alongside Gabriele Beveridge, Bruce Ingram, Samuel Levack & Jennifer Lewandowski and Richard Parry. Later that year she was featured in
The Hot 100 –
The List (magazine)'s "definitive list of Scottish creative talent" and on
The Independent on Sunday's
Pink List as "one to watch". In 2012, she was invited to be a member of the International Jury of the 6th
Iris Prize and to co-host, with
Peter Tatchell, the awards ceremony for the inaugural Lush Prize in support of alternatives to animal testing. In 2014, Harrison was shortlisted for the Best Artistic Response Award at the Climate Week Awards for her ongoing project
Early Warning Signs.
Notable work Below is a list of all Harrison's notable works • 2002 Eat 22 • 2003 Gold Card Adventures • 2005 Day-to-Day Data • 2005 Daily Data Logger • 2006 Tea Blog • 2009 Confessions of a Recovering Data Collector • 2009 Vending Machine • 2009 The History of Financial Crises • 2010 General Election Drinking Game • 2010 Press Release • 2011 A Brief History of Privatisation • 2011 Early Warning Signs{ • 2012 The Redistribution of Wealth • 2012 National Museum of Roller Derby • 2014 After the Revolution, Who Will Clean Up the Mess? • 2016 The
Glasgow effect == References ==