New app lets you "remix" phone pics with Sir Peter Blake's dazzle ship patterns

Love Sir Peter Blake? Love apps that waste way more time than necessary? Ever dreamed of putting your own boat race (that means “face,” to those not versed in Cockney rhyming slang) on an actual boat, then sailing that souped-up boat over your own desk? Then you’re in luck! Welcome, one and all, Dazzleit.

Yup, this devilishly addictive digital demon is as odd as it sounds: you use patterns created by Peter, pop them over your own image, shake your phone to “remix” the pattern then paste it onto a virtual water-based dirigible and merrily sail it over your own surroundings using augmented reality.

The project comes off the back of Sir Peter’s recent project designing the pattern for the good ship Everybody Razzle Dazzle, and a cute Hato Press project that let you design your own ship online. Dazzleit takes things into the portable realm though, meaning your phone can now become a miniature design-studio-cum-boatyard-cum-virtual-reality-wonderland.

We turned a picture of Social Simon, our social media manager, into a canal boat (he used to live on one), but the image wasn’t quite up to scratch, so we’ll let you use your own thumbs and imaginations to create something far better. Honestly, we never thought sailing a brightly patterned virtual rubber duck over the grubby mug on our desks could be quite such a laugh.

The project is part of the 14-18 NOW programme of commissions by artists around Britain to make the centenary of the First World War.