Digital Pointillism

Cuttlefish skin patterning between art, science, and animal communications

During my final year at Cambridge, I wrote my dissertation on cuttlefish camouflage.

The final part of this project focused on how we can use the principles of pointillist painting to better conceptualise the displays of these intelligent cephalopods. Cuttlefish are particularly promising candidates for researching animal cognition because their skin patterning is neurally controlled, and seems able to be controlled cognitively (Hough et al., 2016). This means that, beyond showing neural activity, cuttlefish skin may provide a direct readout of their minds.

When we think with the principles of pointillism we gain a more accurate, alternative and informed understanding of how these displays function as representations (embodying something in a certain way), and re-presentations (dynamically shifting skin patterning to embody a change in the visual environment).

For specific details, I am happy to be contacted.

I am continuing to develop this concept with my supervisors – PhD candidate Willa Lane and Professor Nicky Clayton FRS. A presentation was given in November 2025 at the conference ‘New Perspectives on Animal Camouflage and Human Image-Making’ in Pisa, Italy. We are also working towards publishing a short paper on the matter.