“The art of confusion”. La prima guerra mondiale e l’avvento del dazzle camouflage

Abstract

The dazzle camouflage, also known as razzle dazzle or dazzle painting, is a naval camouflage technique used extensively during the First World War, and to a lesser extent in the Second World War. Result of the ideas of the British marine artist Norman Wilkinson and of the zoologist John Graham Kerr, protagonists of this technical fight, consists of complex models of geometric shapes in contrasting colors with which to paint ships. Unlike other forms of camouflage, the intention of dazzle camouflage is not to hide, but to make more difficult to estimate the reach, speed and direction of a target