All Outputs (78)

Thinking with the Harrisons. (2023)
Book
DOUGLAS, A. and FREMANTLE, C. [2024]. Thinking with the Harrisons. Leuven: Leuven University Press. (Forthcoming)

This book asks a fundamental question around the place of the arts in the global environmental crises. In arguing that the arts have an important role, we are also suggesting that the arts need to be rethought, reimagined and reconfigured through new... Read More about Thinking with the Harrisons..

Thinking with the Harrisons: what does now demand? [Article] (2023)
Journal Article
DOUGLAS, A. and FREMANTLE, C. 2023. Thinking with the Harrisons: what does now demand? Field: a journal of socially-engaged art criticism [online], 23. Available from: https://field-journal.com/issue-23/thinking-with-the-harrisons-what-does-now-demand

"The reversal of entropy requires considerable energy and imagination and is accompanied by risk." This statement from the designer, planner and ecologist Frederick Steiner evokes the core challenge of the current environmental crisis: the energy tha... Read More about Thinking with the Harrisons: what does now demand? [Article].

In conversation: a poetics of empathy: Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison. (2022)
Journal Article
DOUGLAS, A. and FREMANTLE, C. 2022. In conversation: a poetics of empathy: Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison. Women eco artists dialog magazine [online], 13: the art of empathy. Available from: https://directory.weadartists.org/in-conversation-a-poetics-of-empathy

Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison are pioneers in the creative development of art and ecology. It was Helen who read Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, a critical influence in their decision in the early 1970s to do no work that did not in some wa... Read More about In conversation: a poetics of empathy: Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison..

Thinking with the Harrisons: what does now demand? [Presentation] (2022)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
DOUGLAS, A. and FREMANTLE, C. 2022. Thinking with the Harrisons: what does now demand? Presented at Listening to the web of life, 17-18 March 2022, San Diego, USA. Hosted on OpenAIR [online]. Available from: https://doi.org/10.48526/rgu-wt-1629026

How can we learn to think ecologically when our technological, social, aesthetic and political systems are built on the primacy of human rationality? Helen Mayer Harrison (1927-2018) and Newton Harrison's (b. 1932) practice as artists borrows from th... Read More about Thinking with the Harrisons: what does now demand? [Presentation].

Dada and the absurd: pedagogies of art and survival. (2022)
Book Chapter
DOUGLAS, A. 2022. Dada and the absurd: pedagogies of art and survival. In T. Ingold (Ed.), Knowing from the inside: cross-disciplinary experiments with matters of pedagogy. London: Bloomsbury Academic [online], chapter 9, pages 189-211. Available from: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350217171.ch-009

In the early 1970s Allan Kaprow, artist, theorist and educator, wrote three essays entitled The Education of the Un-artist I, II and III. From the late 1950s Kaprow had been instrumental in the development of what he called 'Happenings' and was part... Read More about Dada and the absurd: pedagogies of art and survival..

Foregrounding ecosystems: thinking with the work of Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison. (2021)
Book Chapter
FREMANTLE, C. and DOUGLAS, A. 2021. Foregrounding ecosystems: thinking with the work of Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison. In Villanueva-Romero, D., Kerslake, L. and Flys-Junquera, C. (eds.) Imaginative ecologies: inspiring change through the humanities. Nature, culture and literature, 17. Netherlands: Brill [online], chapter 5, pages 81-106. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004501270_007

The approach we take to understanding, whether framed as 'measured, objective and in control' or 'entangled and adapting', is key to the health of the life web and ourselves. The problems associated with the measured, objective and in control version... Read More about Foregrounding ecosystems: thinking with the work of Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison..

A man standing in a forest listening intently, noting down what he hears. (2021)
Book Chapter
DOUGLAS, A. 2021. A man standing in a forest listening intently, noting down what he hears. In M. Collier, B. Hogg and J. Strachan (eds.) Song of place and time: birdsong and the dawn chorus in natural history and the arts. Manchester: Gaia Project Press [online], pages 192-203. Available from: https://tinyurl.com/yawnpn5r

This essay considers how the human ear can interact with birdsong, which uses registers that are higher and faster in tempo than human music and therefore beyond the capacity and skill of most human performers. The author admires how Messaien’s ‘Le R... Read More about A man standing in a forest listening intently, noting down what he hears..

Calendar variations. (2021)
Book Chapter
DOUGLAS, A. and FREMANTLE, C. 2022. Calendar variations. In Geffen, A., Rosenthal, A., Fremantle, C. and Rhamani, A. (eds.) Ecoart in action: activities, case studies and provocations for classroom and community. New York: New Village Press [online], section 2, case study 4. Available from: https://nyupress.org/9781613321461/ecoart-in-action/

The Work of Allan Kaprow (1927-2006). Allan Kaprow was interested in blurring the boundaries between art and life on the premise that “Life is more artlike than art”. He drew artists and participants into noticing and exploring life's spontaneous mo... Read More about Calendar variations..

The Harrisons' practice in the context of global environmental policy and politics from the 1960s to 2019: a timeline. (2020)
Book Chapter
FREMANTLE, C., DOUGLAS, A. and PRITCHARD, D. 2020. The Harrisons' practice in the context of global environmental policy and politics from the 1960s to 2019: a timeline. In Cartiere, C. and Tan, L. (eds.). The Routledge companion to art in the public realm. Abingdon: Routledge, chapter 28, pages 314-332. Available from: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429450471-28

This chapter complements a previous chapter, 'In the time of art with policy' from the same book. The three authors, Fremantle, Douglas and Pritchard, offer different disciplinary perspectives to this analysis of global environmental policy and the... Read More about The Harrisons' practice in the context of global environmental policy and politics from the 1960s to 2019: a timeline..

In the time of art with policy: the practice of Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison alongside global environmental policy since the 1970s. (2020)
Book Chapter
FREMANTLE, C., DOUGLAS, A. and PRITCHARD, D. 2020. In the time of art with policy: the practice of Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison alongside global environmental policy since the 1970s. In Cartiere, C. and Tan, L. (eds.). The Routledge companion to art in the public realm. Abingdon: Routledge [online], chapter 27, pages 300-314. Available from: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429450471-27

From around 1970, the artists Helen Mayer Harrison (1927-2018) and Newton Harrison (b. 1932), known as ‘the Harrisons,’ started to focus on ecology and ecological systems, influenced by amongst other things, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring which had be... Read More about In the time of art with policy: the practice of Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison alongside global environmental policy since the 1970s..

How big is there? How long is now? Readings from selected texts by Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison. [Performance] (2019)
Exhibition / Performance
DOUGLAS, A. and FREMANTLE, C. 2019. How big is there? How long is now? Readings from selected texts by Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison. [Performance]. Performed on 30 March 2019, UNFIX festival, Glasgow.

This performance featured readings from selected poetic texts by Helen Mayer Harrison (1927-2018) and Newton Harrison (b. 1932), known as 'the Harrisons'. Chris Fremantle and Anne Douglas read six excerpts, which were selected to highlight the Harris... Read More about How big is there? How long is now? Readings from selected texts by Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison. [Performance].

Venturing out on the thread of a tune: the artist as improvisor in public life. (2018)
Book Chapter
DOUGLAS, A. 2018. Venturing out on the thread of a tune: the artist as improvisor in public life. In Oliver, J. (ed.) Creative practice and the art of association, trajectories of practice as research. Melbourne: University of Melbourne Press [online], chapter 6. https://www.mup.com.au/items/190001

In discussing the work of Wassily Kandinsky of some hundred years ago, Will Grohmann, an art historian, focuses on Kandinsky's effort to develop a new grammar for the visual arts. Kandinsky, Grohmann argues, undertakes a profound rethinking of visual... Read More about Venturing out on the thread of a tune: the artist as improvisor in public life..

Improvisation as experimentation in everyday life and beyond. (2017)
Book Chapter
DOUGLAS, A. and COESSENS, K. 2017. Improvisation as experimentation in everyday life and beyond. In Coessens, K. (ed.) Experimental encounters in music and beyond. Leuven: Leuven University Press [online], pages 159-176. Available from: http://lup.be/products/107961

In this chapter we analyse two interrelated projects across the fields of visual art and music, philosophy and anthropology. Calendar Variations (2010-11) is a visual activity initiated by Anne Douglas, visual artist and researcher. A Day in My Life... Read More about Improvisation as experimentation in everyday life and beyond..

Leading cultures of transition through arts practice. (2016)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
DOUGLAS, A. 2016. Leading cultures of transition through arts practice. Keynote presented at the Art and ecology seminar, 28-30 November 2016, Valencia, Spain.

In this third keynote I want to rise a little to the surface while rising to the challenge that both speakers have offered the arts. All three presentations share in common the importance of the stories we tell ourselves. These stories influence and... Read More about Leading cultures of transition through arts practice..

What poetry does best: the Harrisons' poetics of being and acting in the world. (2016)
Book Chapter
DOUGLAS, A. and FREMANTLE, C. 2016. What poetry does best: the Harrisons' poetics of being and acting in the world. In Harrison, H.M. and Harrison, N. (eds.) The time of the force majeure: after 45 years counterforce is on the horizon. Grantham: Prestel.

Simply paying attention guarantees the transformation from a nature supposedly asleep to the work that displays nature's strange vitality. Art is what attention makes with nature. This observation by Michel De Certeau, noted French philosopher of the... Read More about What poetry does best: the Harrisons' poetics of being and acting in the world..

Social art practices as feminist manifestos: radical hospitality in the archive. (2016)
Thesis
GAUSDEN, C. 2016. Social art practices as feminist manifestos: radical hospitality in the archive. Robert Gordon University, PhD thesis.

The research presents a practice-based examination of the politics and poetics of the manifesto form, drawing on feminist theoretical writing and activism alongside contemporary iterations of socially engaged art. It offers feminist manifestos as a l... Read More about Social art practices as feminist manifestos: radical hospitality in the archive..

What is it possible to know? (2016)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
DOUGLAS, A. 2016. What is it possible to know? Keynote presented at the Research practice practice research: Fine Art Research Network symposium, 15 July 2016, Lancaster, UK [online]. Available from: http://www.nafae.org.uk/sites/default/files/papers/research_practice_keynote_anne_douglas.pdf

In his 1978 movie Manhattan, Woody Allen's character, lying on a coach in his apartment after a break up of a relationship, records his thoughts on life: 'An idea for a short story about people in Manhattan who are constantly creating these neurotic... Read More about What is it possible to know?.

Inconsistency and contradiction: lessons in improvisation in the work of Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison. (2016)
Book Chapter
DOUGLAS, A. and FREMANTLE, C. 2016. Inconsistency and contradiction: lessons in improvisation in the work of Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison. In Brady, J. (ed.) Elemental: an arts and ecology reader. Manchester: Gaia Project Press, [online]. Available from: https://www.cornerhousepublications.org/publications/elemental-an-arts-and-ecology-reader-gaia-project/

The essay draws out the learning from the authors' analysis of the practice of Helen Mayer Harrison (1927-2018) and Newton Harrison (b.1932), collectively known as 'the Harrisons'. Inconsistency and contradiction are conventionally eliminated in rese... Read More about Inconsistency and contradiction: lessons in improvisation in the work of Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison..

The discourse of cultural leadership. (2016)
Thesis
PRICE, J.F.R. 2016. The discourse of cultural leadership. Robert Gordon University, PhD thesis.

Cultural leadership has been a key concept in cultural policy and training since 2002. Most closely associated with the UKs Clore Leadership Programme, it has been developed through various courses and initiatives domestically and internationally, in... Read More about The discourse of cultural leadership..

Practice-led research and improvisation in post modern culture. (2016)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
DOUGLAS, A. 2016. Practice-led research and improvisation in post modern culture. Orpheus lecture presented as part of the docARTES: crossing borders programme, 26 February 2016, Ghent, Belgium.

docARTES is an international inter-university doctoral programme for practice-based research in musical arts, designed for musician-researchers. This was an invited Orpheus lecture for the Crossing Borders programme in 2016.