ROBERT M DOUGLAS

Camouflage reveals a striking intersection of biology, art, psychology, and warfare, tracing how principles of visual perception move from zebras and tigers to Cubist painters and World War battleships. Beginning with figure–ground illusions, countershading (as described by Abbott Thayer), disruptive patterns, and mimicry in animals, the presentation shows how breaking up outlines and manipulating shading interfere with the brain’s edge detection and shape-from-shading processes. These insights migrated into military practice: from khaki uniforms and French artist-led camouflage units in WWI to Norman Wilkinson’s bold “dazzle” ship patterns designed not to hide vessels but to confuse enemies about their speed, size, and direction. Modern camouflage evolved further through Gestalt psychology, multi-scale digital patterns like CADPAT, fractal analysis inspired by Jackson Pollock’s paintings, and experimental research on motion illusions. Ultimately, whether protecting a zebra from flies or a convoy from U-boats, camouflage exploits how perception works—proving that survival often depends less on invisibility than on confusion.