Distortion, Illusion and Transformation
Distortion, Illusion and Transformation

The Evolution of Dazzle. Painting, a Camouflage System to Protect Allied Shipping from Unrestricted Submarine Warfare, 1917–1918

Summary/Abstract: The Dazzle Painting system of camouflage was applied to merchant and some naval ships during the 14-18 War in response to Germany’s declaration of Unrestricted Submarine Warfare. The system aimed to confuse the enemy submariner’s perception of a ships course in order to prevent attack. The particular visual qualities of Dazzle Painting have drawn critics and historians to alternate sides of a debate over the connection between Dazzle Camouflage and avant-garde modernist art, which remain inconclusive. This paper extends and challenges existing interpretations of the Dazzle patterns and their origins.The design-based approach to this new study of Norman Wilkinson’s work as an illustrator for graphic newspapers prior to and during the 14-18 War derives from drawing and animation methodologies as well as archival and literature research. It offers new analysis and understanding of the development of Dazzle Camouflage, and the creative methods through which it was conceived, produced, tested and deployed. Working from archives at Duxford, Chatham Historic Dockyard, the Imperial War Museum, and original, un-archived family material left by the inventor of Dazzle, Norman Wilkinson, along with contemporary and contemporaneous literature this cross-disciplinary research paper has extended knowledge of the contexts in which this radical form of deceptive camouflage was developed.

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