‘How can embracing the unexplored areas in creative disciplines help develop non-linear and non-binary modes of researching, doing and thinking for regenerative futures?’
Ariane Camille Fourquier, PhD, is a textile researcher-practitioner investigating the use of gaps for system mapping to illustrate unexplored and overlooked creative boundaries. Her practice explores the notion of empty space as an inherent scaffold of a woven material system.
Dr. Ariane Camille Fourquier has a BA in Textiles for Fashion from the London College of Fashion (UAL), an MA in Woven Textiles and a practice-led PhD both from the Royal College of Art. Her thesis is titled: W(hole): An alternative perspective on weave structure visualisation.
Inspired by her fascination with weaving’s antithetical nature; a rigid construction that gives rise to a fluid woven cloth, Ariane’s work explores the role and value of the empty space in-between yarns in weave structure visualisation. Seeing the gap as a material space as opposed to an area deprived of matter, she uses it as a design tool to challenge the fundamental knowledge contained within woven cloth construction, enabling the craft to open up to interdisciplinary research and the development of novel assembly systems, which increasingly demand non-linear and organic modes of thinking.
Prior to this she worked as a Fabric Developer and Textile Designer in London and New York. Aware of fashion’s impact on the climate crisis, she left to teach herself weaving. During her MA, she explored how woven textiles can aid recovery from sexual violence-related trauma, receiving multiple awards and prizes, including the Clothworkers’ Company of Weavers x Cockpit Arts Award, the MAKERVERSITY Somerset House Residency, and the FUSION x Craft Council Prize.
Ariane also lectures between London (Royal College of Art) and Amsterdam (Amsterdam Fashion Academy) where she teaches textiles theory and practice. She encourages students to critically investigate the ecological boundaries of their own disciplines and to let materials guide their design process, rather than focusing solely on the outcome.
Research Group: Regenerative Art and Design
The Regenerative Art and Design (RAD) research group seeks to contribute to a new generation of regenerative designers and artists who address the pressing need for transitions that support planetary health. By taking whole systems responsibility through collaborative practices, the group aims to create transformative pathways for reimagining design futures grounded in care and ecological integrity.
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‘How can art and design cultivate critical expressions rooted in ethics of care and relationality to influence ecological, social, and economic structures?’
Delfina Fantini van Ditmar 
‘How can we find new materials and products that rely on interdependence between communities and ecological systems rather than extraction?’
Hugo F. Garcia
‘It is through the “not-knowing” that a stimulating and caring environment can be created to confidently share vulnerability.’
Risk Hazekamp
‘A bio lab is a place of working with living organisms, brought out of their habitat so we can learn to think outside of the Petri dish. Let’s take care of these teachers!’
Michaela Davidová
