About the Artist

Hello, I'm Ian Haut, an artist and Brown student, graduating this May 2026 with an A.B. in Earth, Climate, and Biology and B.F.A. in Illustration.

I typically work in either fiber arts or digital 3D, and my work almost always revolves around nature, the Earth, and environment. I create a lot of interactive art in the form of video game development, and I love to develop ways for people to engage more in environmental and Earth Sciences through interactive experiences.

FOLIATION features three tufted-rug tapestries inspired by remote sensing satellite images of Earth and planetary features. 

The Green Tapestry is primarily based on satellite images of the Amazon River, plus some other photos of deltas in Lake Baikal and the Nile. 

The Blue Tapestry is made entirely of images from the edges of the Antarctic ice sheet. 

The Red Tapestry is composed of Hi-Rise satellite images of Mars that I worked with during my time as an undergraduate research assistant for Dr. Daubar. 

I chose this subject matter initially because I was profoundly inspired by the data I was working with for Dr. Daubar. I remember one week, I was mapping rockfalls in a Martian crater, and I spent hours and hours looking at this one crater. I started really appreciating it visually, and I kept being struck by the beautiful patterns I was seeing in the images.

Then, I started looking at satellite images of Earth more closely. I had the idea to combine multiple images using some of the image processing techniques I use in video game development. Through processes like warping one grayscale image by the values in another, or using a height blend so the highest values of each image poke through the lowest values of the other, I’m able to combine images so they’re more than simply overlaying each other – they’re influencing each other, woven together to create something more. 

For this project, I chose fiber art because most of my work is very digital, and I wanted to try to engage with satellite data in a more tactile way. By turning satellite images– something so high-tech and often communicated in purely digital, quantitative styles –into something you could feel, I could share a new way for people to experience it. 

In Earth Science, “foliation” describes the layering in metamorphic rock, a structural feature that develops as thin layers of minerals are combined through geologic processes. The art of FOLIATION evokes that interwriting of Earth structures, as layers of satellite images are woven together, first digitally and then through fiber art, to produce tapestries showcasing the vibrant and layered visuals of the natural world. 

This show is made possible by a Maker Grant from the Brown Design Workshop, and a Student Grant from the Brown Arts Institute, as well as by the Brown Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences – thank you for your support!