Please look above

I've been thinking about camouflage patterning, particularly the use of camouflage by humans. The defining characteristics are interesting, especially considering what appears (to me) to be common perspectives of such. One, the specific aspects of camouflage are quite different from those in other patterns. It inherently doesn't have a definable overall structure, because then what's the point, and it does typically have a definable color scheme, because that is the point. Traditional fashion patterning can be executed in any palette. What interests me most is perhaps the necessity of a particular environment for the patterning to be effective, as well as knowledge of what viewers (the audience) knows. Total awareness of the surrounding, unpredictable yet a pattern... Site specific? It's clear why it's not used in much or any ornamentation, but it also seems to have a lot of substance (and I'm also interested in removing the militaristic connotations, sort of. I was totally into military history as a kid and running around in the woods, still, so I can live with it.)
The question then becomes, what are effective and necessary means of incorporating the elements of camouflage into what I'm making? As I said, site-specific artwork is an obvious answer but doesn't interest me much. It does rely totally on the illusory and making one thing look like another. Mixed media, or something. In the meantime, and for your consideration, here's one of my favorite patterns (flecktarn, from Germany).

From wikipedia.