Camouflage and Its Impact on Australia in WWII: An Art Historian’s Perspective

Authors

  • Ann Elias

Keywords:

Camouflage, WWII, art, counterintelligence, deception, visual illusions, science, animals, manliness

Abstract

The impact of modern camouflage on Australian military practices and on the public imagination intensified during the Second World War. A new organisation was created to support national security through concealment and deception. Its core members were civilians and included a zoologist who specialised in animal camouflage as well as a group of Australia’s leading artists who specialised in optical tricks and visual illusions. While concealment and deception remain central to contemporary approaches to national security (i.e. part of a counterintelligence strategy), the history outlined here draws attention to ethical conflicts and conceptual struggles in relation to camouflage and warfare that were important in WWII, but may seem quaint today.

Author Biography

  • Ann Elias

    Dr Ann Elias is Associate Professor in art theory at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney. Her research interests include: camouflage as a military, social and aesthetic phenomenon; flowers and their cultural history; and coral reef imagery of the underwater realm. Her books include, Camouflage Australia: Art, Nature, Science and War (University of Sydney Press, 2011), Useless Beauty: Flowers and Australian Art (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015), and Camouflage Cultures: Beyond the Art of Disappearance, edited by Ann Elias, Ross Harley and Nicholas Tsoutas (Sydney University Press, 2015).

References

Downloads

Published

2023-02-03

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 1 (2016)

Section

Historial Research Article

License

Authors retain copyright in their articles and grant SALUS the right of first publication. The work is simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as appropriate credit is given to the author(s) and the journal, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made are indicated.

How to Cite

Camouflage and Its Impact on Australia in WWII: An Art Historian’s Perspective. (2023). Salus Journal, 4(1), 1-12. https://journals.csu.domains/index.php/salusjournal/article/view/52