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OVER
SUMMER 2006 ELLIE WAS COMMISSIONED BY PRIME
TO TAKE PART IN THE PROJECT ‘PART-TIME’. FOR 'PART-TIME'
THREE ARTISTS WERE ASKED TO SPEND FOUR WEEKS WORKING UNDERCOVER
IN A LOW-WAGE JOB AND TO GENERATE WORK IN RESPONSE TO THEIR NEW
SURROUNDINGS.
UNFORTUNATELY
ELLIE WAS NOT ABLE TO FIND STEADY EMPLOYMENT FOR THE FULL FOUR WEEKS.
INSTEAD SHE HAD A VARIETY OF EXPERIENCES WITH TEMP JOBS AND RECRUITMENT
AGENCIES AS SHE DESPERATELY LOOKED FOR WORK. THESE INCLUDED: BEING
INTERVIEWED FOR A ELECTRICITY METER INSTALLATION JOB, FILING AND
COPY TYPING IN THE OFFICE OF A CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, USHERING AN
EVENT AT WHICH THE ‘CELEBRITY’ GUEST WAS AN OZZY LOOK-A-LIKE,
DATA INPUTTING FOR A SMALL EBAY BUSINESS, PACKING ST TROPEZ TAN
MITTS ON A PRODUCTION LINE, DOING DOOR-TO-DOOR SALES FOR ‘CHARITY’
AND GETTING UP AT 5:30AM TO ‘SIGN-IN’ AT LABOUR READY.
THESE EXPERIENCES ARE DESCRIBED IN DETAIL ON ELLIE’S
WORK BLOG.
AS A WAY OF DOCUMENTING THE PROCESS, ELLIE DECIDED TO KEEP A RECORD
OF EVERYTHING SHE DID, 24 HOURS A DAY FOR THE FULL FOUR WEEK PERIOD.
SHE CATEGORISED HER TIME INTO A SERIES OF 17 DIFFERENT ACTIVITIES
SUCH AS ‘EMPLOYMENT’, ‘COMPUTER WORK’ OR
‘EXERCISE’. THE DATA WAS RECORDED IN A POCKET SIZED
LOG BOOK AND THEN COMPILED INTO A RAPIDLY EXPANDING SPREADSHEET
ON A DAILY BASIS (WHICH BY THE END OF THE FOUR WEEKS CONTAINED 2297
ENTRIES). AS A WAY OF VISUALISING, JUST EXACTLY HOW SHE SPENT
HER TIME, ELLIE USED THESE REAMS OF DATA TO CREATE A SERIES OF 28
COLOUR CODED TIMELINES.
THE MOST SIGNIFICANT OUTCOME OF ELLIE’S INVOLVEMENT IN ‘PART-TIME’
HOWEVER, WAS THE BOND THAT DEVELOPED BETWEEN HER AND THE OTHER TWO
ARTISTS WHO WERE TAKING PART IN THE PROJECT: JOANNA SPITZNER AND
LIZ KEARNEY. THE UNUSUAL UNDERCOVER ROLE THAT PART-TIME DEMANDED
MEANT THAT THEY EACH FOUND THEMSELVES OPERATING IN QUITE ISOLATED
SITUATIONS. ALTHOUGH THEY WERE IN DIFFERENT AREAS OF THE COUNTRY:
ELLIE – NOTTINGHAM, JOANNA – BLACKPOOL AND LIZ –
LIVERPOOL, THEIR SHARED EXPERIENCE OF SEARCHING FOR EMPLOYMENT AND
WORKING AS UNDERCOVER ARTISTS ALLOWED THEM TO EMPATHISE –
SUPPORTING AND ASSISTING EACH OTHER THROUGH THE PROCESS.
AS A WAY OF FORMALISING THIS THREE-WAY RELATIONSHIP ELLIE, JOANNA
AND LIZ DECIDED TO UNIONISE IN OPPOSITION TO THEIR EMPLOYER PRIME
AND CREATE THE UNION
OF UNDERCOVER ARTISTS. THEY ELECTED A SPOKESWOMAN BY THE NAME
OF TINA GURLEY FLYNN WHO WOULD BE THEIR REPRESENTATIVE VOICE AND
FROM THAT POINT ONWARDS WOULD ENTER INTO ALL COMMUNICATION AND NEGOTIATION
WITH PRIME ON THEIR BEHALF.
ELLIE
HARRISON’S WORK BLOG
DAILY
TIMELINES
UNION
OF UNDERCOVER ARTISTS WEBSITE |