Have you ever imagined that everything (but everything!) in the aesthetics of nature is made for a cause? Nature gives to its species the tools of survival and humankind jut copies them. Here is a study of various camouage patterns and colours in animals and humans by Maritina Kontaratou.
Disruptive patterns use strongly contrasting, non-repeating markings such as spots or stripes to break up the outlines of an animal or military vehicle, or to conceal telltale features, especially the eyes. Disruptive patterns is one method to defeat visual systems such as edge detection. This photograph shows how ground-nesting quail mothers pattern of their own eggs by choosing the most appropriate sand color to make spots to hide them best to their surroundings.
Disruptive Coloration
Disruptive camouflage makeup hides soldiers from their enemies.
Resemblance to surroundings
Chamaeleo changes colour both for camouflage and signalling. This animal, like squid and octopus, actively changes its skin patterns and colours using special chromatophore cells to resemble current background.
Invisibility cloaks are almost a reality with fractal-camouflage clothing.
An “invisible” mirror house by Yoon Space.
Some animals actively seek to hide by decorating themselves with materials such as twigs, sand, or pieces of shell from their environment, to break up their outlines, to conceal the features of their bodies, and to match their backgrounds.
SelfDecoration
Ana Mendieta’s activist artworks include explorations with identity, exile and land art, where the female body was used almost as a corpse that became part of the landscape. After her misterious death, activists were holding signs "Where is Ana Mendieta?" blocking the entrance of the Gugenheim Museum.
Changeable Skin Animals like the Arctic hare, Arctic fox, stoat, and rock ptarmigan change their coat colour (by moulting and growing new fur or feathers) from brown or grey in the summer to white in the winter.
Volunteer soldier in Winter with white and snow-like patterned camouflage clothes.
Countershading/ Silvering
Countershading uses graded colour to counteract the effect of self-shadowing, creating an illusion of flatness. Self-shadowing makes an animal appear darker below than on top, grading from light to dark; countershading 'paints in' tones which are darkest on top, lightest below, making the countershaded animal nearly invisible against a suitable background. In fish, countershading is also teamed with “silvering�. Silvering makes an animal's body highly reflective. At medium depths at sea, light comes from above, so a mirror oriented vertically makes animals such as fish invisible from the side. The overall mirror effect is achieved with many small reflectors, all oriented vertically.
Countershaded Focke-Wulf Fw 190 W端rger (English: Shrike) is a German fighter aircraft designed by Kurt Tank in the late 1930s and widely used during World War II.
Mimesis In mimesis, the camouflaged object looks like something else which is of no special interest to the observer. Mimesis is common in prey animals, for example when a peppered moth caterpillar mimics a twig, or a grasshopper mimics a dry leaf. Mimesis is also employed by some predators and parasites to lure their prey. For example, a flower mantis mimics a particular kind of flower, such as an orchid.
Patkau Architects materialised in Pennsylvania this subtle, yet progressive architectural design, with its minimal impact on the landscape, which also met the criteria of the preservation of natural environment that had been set down. The second photo is an architectural masterpiece by Peter Zumthor, in which the owner of the house decided on a minimal approach, so as not to obstruct views of the area’s skyline.
Most forms of camouflage are made ineffective by movement: a deer or grasshopper may be highly cryptic when motionless, but instantly seen when it moves. But one method, motion dazzle, requires rapidly moving bold patterns of contrasting stripes. Motion dazzle degrade predators' ability to estimate the prey's speed and direction accurately, giving the prey an improved chance of escape. Motion dazzle distorts speed perception (due to the wagon-wheel effect, where the perceived motion is inverted, and the barberpole illusion, where the perceived motion is in a wrong direction) and is most effective at high speeds. Stripes can also distort perception of size (and so, perceived range to the target).
Motion Dazzle
Zoologist John Kerr applied the “dazzle� principle to WW1 ships in an attempt to confuse any enemy following the ships.
The naval vessels and aircrafts with this protective coloration remain visible, but, at the same time, unidentifiable in terms of boundary, shape, speed, and direction.
Source: Wikipedia and internet