Joe Pettet-Smith
The Cloak Hides the Dagger
In 1942, a stage magician made an army disappear. Alongside a rag-tag unit of artists, zoologists and designers based in Surrey, England, they made plans to make military apparatus disappear in the deserts of Egypt during the Second World War. Using optical illusions and experimental camouflage, they borrowed techniques from stagecraft to misdirect and bend reality. Although the plans worked, more recent research suggests that the stage magician’s involvement was itself a deception. Fantastical stories are appealing, whether they end up to be true or not becomes less important, the suspension of disbelief is part of the experience. In The Cloak Hides the Dagger, the intersections of stage-magic and camouflage act as a metaphor for misinformation in the post-truth era.
Nella Casabella • Adrián Coto • Yiqi Dong • Anne Erhard • Vladimir Gheorghe • Sayuri Ichida • Christian Jago • Joe Pettet-Smith •
Arts University Bournemouth
MA Photography
University of Brighton
MA Photography
University of Derby
MA Film and Photography
Falmouth University
MA Photography
London College of Communication
MA Photojournalism and Documentary Photography
University of Portsmouth
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Royal College of Art
MA Photography
University of South Wales
MA Documentary Photography