1 Camouflage: using visual arts and sociology to understand the military Dr. Ben Wadham and Dr. Amy Hamilton School of Education, Flinders University, ben.wadham@flinders.edu.au; Amy.hamilton@flinders.edu.au Abstract The military is the core institution of state sanctioned violence in Western liberal democracies. In the last decade or so the role of the military has changed and militarism has become an increasingly conspicuous aspect of public life. The idea of camouflage is used and developed to explore how collaboration between the visual arts and sociology can be used to denaturalise the taken-for-granted assumptions and beliefs about the military in Australian society. Camouflage is explained in its military utility, its psychological concept (Gestalt theory) the art camouflage movement and their developed techniques (eg Cubism, Dadaism), and in terms of deconstruction or sociological critique as a tool for making social relations that are culturally camouflaged visible. If artists see fields blue they are deranged and should go to an asylum. If they only pretend to see them blue, they are criminals and should go to prison. Adolf Hitler A madman takes things for what they are not, and people one for another; he cuts friends and recognises complete strangers; he thinks he is unmasking when, in fact, he is putting on a mask… he is unaware of difference. Michel Foucault Foucault’s Discipline and Punish (1977) highlights a structural phenomenon of the military in liberal democratic societies: the dialectic of violence and reason. Beginning with the horror of the torturous public spectacle the act of sovereign power is gratuitous and beastly. As the book progresses we learn about the domestication of violence and control through the imperatives of Enlightenment cultural practice – the application of reason and the practice of discipline. Also trying to understand the historical development of discipline and the military profession Muary Feld (1977: 23) writes of Goya’s etchings, The Caprichos (No 3 1797-8) that represents the artist asleep at his desk while creatures of the night fly free behind him. The etching reads: Wadham, B.A. & Hamilton, A.R., 2009. Camouflage: how the visual arts and sociology make sense of the military. The Future of Sociology. Proceedings of the Australian Sociological Association conference 2009, 1-14. Copyright 2009, Authors. Available at http://www.tasa.org.au/conferences/conferencepapers09/culture.htm Archived at Flinders University: dspace.flinders.edu.au