Vantablack

[GeneChing]

We don't really cover the Winter Olympics (aside from 2022 which will be in China, and we did cover Sochi in 2014 a little). Maybe this will sprout into a 2018 Winter Olympics thread.

But meanwhile, Vantablack is super trippy stuff. I'd love to see this in person because I'm sure it doesn't photograph well.

The Darkest Material in the World is Coming to the Olympics
Surrey Nano Systems
IN BRIEF

Vantablack, a unique material made using carbon nanotubes, has captured many imaginations as the world's darkest material. An artistic exhibit at the 2018 Olympics in South Korea will demonstrate some of its unique properties.
THE DARKEST OLYMPICS

At the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, spectators will be plunged into the blackest void, a “schism of space,” as described to CNN by Asif Khan, a British architect who will be using Vantablack to create an unmatched display at the event. Vantablack is known as the darkest material ever created — it is so unimaginably black that the human eye actually has trouble processing exactly what it is seeing.

Khan’s exhibit will allow all Olympics participants and spectators to fully experience Vantablack’s unique properties. Khan is creating a building that visitors will encounter in the Olympic Park — it will have four curved walls, but will look rather 2-dimensional from a distance, resembling a crevice through which you peer into the depths of space. This effect will be doubled by tiny lights, appearing as stars, that will be placed onto the structure.


The same object coated in Vantablack appears 2-dimensional. Image Credit: Surrey NanoSystems

The illusion is possible because objects covered in Vantablack are so dark that they are thought to be the closest visual representation of a black hole that we currently are capable of creating. This is because Vantablack isn’t a color or a paint — it a material that actually simulates the complete absence of color, absorbing 99.96 percent of the light that hits its surface.

CREATING THE VOID

First developed three years ago by Surrey NanoSystems, Vantablack is equipped with carbon nanotubes that absorb almost all light instead of reflecting it. This unique property has made the world’s darkest material the subject of intense study for application by aerospace engineers, architects, artists, in wiring on microchips, in touch screens, and so much more. Its applications are even doubled as its unique properties also allow it to absorb heat particularly well.


An object coated in Vantablack appears 2-dimensional and is difficult to perceive. Image Credit: Surrey NanoSystems

Spectators at the 2018 Olympics in South Korea will really be in for a unique experience, Khan said in an interview with CNN. “It will be like you’re looking into the depths of space itself. As you approach the building that star field will grow to fill your entire field of view, and then you’ll enter as though you’re being absorbed into a cloud of blackness.”

[GeneChing]

THE WORLD’S MOST METAL BIRD MAKES DARKNESS OUT OF CHAOS
DISCOVERY CHANNEL/BBC

THE MATING DANCE of the male superb bird of paradise is like nothing else on Earth. To win the affection of a female, he forms a sort of satellite dish with his body, revealing an entrancing band of blue. He jumps about like this, clicking in the face of the rather drab female, who appears simultaneously intrigued and horrified.



Other species of birds of paradise may vary in their plumage and tactics, but they share something remarkable: their black feathers. OK, maybe not remarkable at first glance, but a study out today in the journal Nature Communications reveals that those feathers absorb 99.95 percent of light. That’s nearly none more black, and virtually identical to the 99.965 percent of light that Vantablack, the world’s darkest artificial substance, can absorb. And it’s all thanks to black feathers structured like a forest of chaos.

The black feathers of the male bird of paradise eat light. Which again, metal. That’s because unlike your typical bird feather, which is more or less neatly structured with branches that branch off of branches, kind of like a fractal, the bird of paradise feather looks like an irregular forest of trees (see the image below for a comparison).

This leads to a whole lot of cavities in the feather. “Light strikes the feather, and is repeatedly scattered within these cavities,” says Harvard evolutionary biologist Dakota McCoy, lead author of the paper. “Each time it scatters, a little bit is absorbed, so that's how they become so black.” (Nitpicky thing I should probably mention: The feathers absorb 99.95 percent of directly incident light, meaning light coming from straight ahead, where the female would be standing. When it comes to light from all sides, the figure is more like 96.86 percent.) Which is particularly odd because human-made super-blacks rely not on chaos, but strict patterning of structures.


A comparison of a normal feather, top left, and a feather from a paradise riflebird, top right. The bottom panels are the feathers coated in gold. Notice how the riflebird’s still appears a deep black.DAKOTA MCCOY

This is known as structural absorption, and it’s fundamentally different from how pigment works in the animal kingdom. A pigment on, say, a parrot, absorbs certain wavelengths of light and reflects others, manifesting as color. The idea behind the structural absorption of the bird of paradise's super-black, on the other hand, is light keeps bouncing around the "forest" of structures, absorbing and absorbing.

The male bird of paradise takes things to the next level for a very good reason: sex. Let’s return to the example of the superb bird of paradise and its dance of seduction. The little prince of darkness creates that satellite dish with his wings, revealing a striking band of blue set against that striking black. This blue is also a structural color, though in this case it’s structural reflection, not absorption. So it bounces light around the structure to give a sort of sheen that changes depending on the angle. Again, this is different from straight pigment in that pigment reflects or absorbs certain wavelengths of light without all the bouncing around.

“The whole point, we think, of these feathers is to trick her eye and brain into thinking that there's less light illuminating the male than there really is,” says McCoy. “So to her eye, when her world is an incredibly dark black background and then a vivid blue spot, the spot looks even brighter, and it even looks like it's glowing.” It may even look like it’s floating in space.

This delicate dance isn't about hubris—it's about sexual selection. The male puts on his show because females can afford to be picky about who they mate with. The debate over why this evolved is still a contentious one, but it may have been that long ago, nice feathers were an indication that a bird of paradise male was healthy and parasite free. Females picked the highfalutin males, and an arms race ensued, with males developing ever more ostentatious displays. So it may be that these days, a male with super-black feathers and a pretty blue band isn't necessarily more healthy. It might be that he's bluffing. Which would all explain why females are so drab—this isn’t an adaptation to, say, camouflage better at night, otherwise you’d expect both sexes would rock it.

What’s curious is why we don’t see these kinds of feathers more often among birds. After all, absorbing almost all the photons that hit the feathers can in a sense make a bird invisible. “It may be that it really affects the waterproof-ability of those feathers, it may be that it's more costly to produce those feathers,” says Jack Dumbacher, curator of ornithology and mammalogy at the California Academy of Sciences. “There must be some kind of downside. Maybe they wear out more quickly and have to be replaced more often.”

Clearly, though, evolution has deemed super-black feathers to be useful for the bird of paradise, which means they may well be useful for humans too. Because the black magic of the bird of paradise feather literally goes deeper. McCoy and her team imaged the feathers with a scanning electron microscope, but with this technique the electron beam tends to electrostatically charge specimens and mess with image quality. So they had to ground the feathers.

“We blasted it with gold so that we could look at it under a microscope,” says McCoy, “but then we noticed amazingly that it still looked black even though we had put a 5 nanometer layer of gold over the entire surface.” The super-black feather, it seems, just won’t quit being super black.

Which could be great news for materials science. Super-black materials made in the lab rely on regularity to scatter light—a bunch of tiny cones, for instance, one after another across a surface. That’s like precise and elegant classical music compared to the bird of paradise’s metal-as-hell method. So maybe engineers can embrace that chaos to create new materials out of keratin, the same stuff that makes up feathers (and your hair and nails, by the way). Especially since traditional super-black materials tend to be fragile.

“Feathers are really robust, they're hard to break, and they're made of this super cheap thing,” says McCoy. “So if we can easily 3-D print or some other simple cheap way of manufacturing this, I think it could be useful.”

So metalheads, rejoice. New super-black materials may be headed your way, thanks to the sexual adventures of the bird of paradise. Which if it isn’t the name of a metal band out there, it should be.

I want a vantablack cape.

[wolfen]

Vantablack Sword Fighting Discussion



It seems maybe you could coat the sword and it would be good for one hit before it loses it's vanta. It would have more use as a ninja suit or stealth outfit.



Can you make a sword from Vantablack?
7 Answers
Tyler Siemssen

Answered Oct 18

Well, no. Vantablack, the “darkest material known to man” cannot be made into a sword. You see, Vantablack is made by ‘growing’ a tiny forest of Vertically Aligned carbon NanoTubes in an Array. This is why it is called VANTAblack. These nanotubes trap photons, allowing them to bounce around until they disperse all of their energy. While this makes Vantablack reflect almost no light, it isn’t very structurally stable. You could, theoretically coat a steel sword in Vantablack, which would be functional, but still have that cool lack of color.



Daniel Ma, Kendo Nidan, former collegiate fencer
Updated Nov 26 ·

I have to admit, I find the idea of a Vantablack-coated blade extremely appealing.

(For those who are unaware, Vantablack is a substance made from carbon-nanotube arrays which absorb 99.965% of visible light that falls on it.)
As others have noted, Vantablack itself would make a poor blade. It does not have the structural strength required for swords.
However, Vantablack does come in a paint form, Vantablack S-VIS. The actual painting process is difficult, the solvents may be toxic, and the resulting paint is fragile (likely not lasting more than one blade cut.)
However, it comes with one huge advantage — DISTANCE CONTROL!
If there’s one thing I’ve learned through both Kendo and Fencing, it’s that 90% of all swordsmanship boils down to two concepts: distance and timing.
Distance was of such paramount importance that there is an entire Kendo stance dedicated to confounding your opponent’s sense of distance: Waki-gamae.
This stance hides your blade length by holding it behind you with the visible portion mostly in a difficult to read profile.

(Waki-gamae)

This stance breaks all the cardinal rules of good swordsmanship. The blade isn’t immediately threatening target, making it slow to an attack. The sword isn’t providing you any protection either — nothing prevents your opponent from rushing in.
The only benefit is that your opponent doesn’t know your distance. Are you in waki because you have a long blade, so you know that you can cut him before he can cut you? Do you as the opponent risk it?
Waki-gamae is in many ways a challenge. “Do you think your blade is longer? Do you?? Come and find out.” However, it is almost never used anymore except in kata as shinai lengths are standardized, negating the distance benefit.
However, all this changes with a Vantablack-coated blade. It is now entirely feasible to take a standard, blade pointed at the opponent’s throat stance (chudan no kamae) which is protective and quick to strike and still confound your opponent’s sense of distance.

Look at the picture of chudan below with a regular shinai and one that is our hypothetical vantablack blade.

(Chudan no kamae)

Hah! Good luck finding your distance here! Though this would work particularly well if I was also wearing a black gi and hakama, it does not require black clothing to work.
So much of our depth perception is based upon subtle visual judgments made by reflections. A uniformly black blade would be disorienting as heck.
Is this a long blade held at a low angle, or a short blade held at a high angle? “Come and find out.”
Even if the Vantablack wears off quickly after one cut, the advantages it gives you in that one cut would likely determine the outcome of a duel.
Overcoming the toxic fumes… don’t have anything on that. But that’s why we have material scientists
Hope this was helpful.

___
Update: Ben Jensen, founder and CTO for Vantablack actually posted an answer — I highly recommend you read that first. (Special thanks to Mills Baker for informing me!)

Mr. Jensen, fantastic product — please feel free to correct any technical errors in this post. Also, if you ever want to demo a Vantablack covered sword and need someone to test it, please send me a message ;-)

Ben Jensen
Ben Jensen, Founder and CTO of Surrey NanoSystems, creators of Vantablack
Answered Oct 19

No, not really. It's 99% free space, so difficult to do anything with other than use it as a coating. That said, you could make a composite blade but it wouldn't be much use.

Best stick to metals that you can harden and temper for swords.

Miguel Valdespino


You could coat a sword with it, but after the first hit, you would damage the nanotubes and make that part ordinary black. Vantablack is very delicate and it only takes a small about of force to damage it.

Omkar Bapat

Answered Nov 23

Vantablack is good as a pigment but it would truly suck at becoming solid materials as it is not designed for that purpose. Instead of Vantablack, you can make a sword out of ‘Obsidian’. It may not be as black as Vantablack but it is really good at cutting things up.

Kemal Kautsar

Answered Nov 29

you’re gonna create a Darksaber? ok, just watch where you point that thing, young padawan

[GeneChing]

Thread: Vantablack
Thread: Winter Olympics

[GeneChing]

Darkest material on Earth creates a 'schism in space' for Winter Olympics
By Temujin Doran and Katy Scott, CNN
Updated 7:31 AM ET, Mon February 12, 2018

Story highlights
Vantablack absorbs 99.96% of the light that hits its surface
The makers say they have been inundated with requests to use the material
A derivative has been used on a building unveiled at Winter Olympics

(CNN)A building described as the "darkest on Earth" has been unveiled at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, in South Korea.
It's the work of British architect Asif Khan, who achieved the super-black effect by coating the building in a revolutionary material that absorbs 99% of light.
The Hyundai Pavilion, which Khan describes as a "schism in space," has four curved walls, each of which is studded with thousands of tiny lights -- like stars against the night sky.
"It will be like you're looking into the depths of space itself," said Khan, ahead of the Games. "As you approach the building that star field will grow to fill your entire field of view, and then you'll enter as though you're being absorbed into a cloud of blackness."
Juxtaposed against the pristine whiteness of the Olympic Winter Games, Khan hopes his building will provoke a philosophical experience by presenting visitors with a "void of infinite depth and possibility."



The building's exterior is covered with a substance called Vantablack VBx2, a derivative of nanomaterial Vantablack. Touted as the darkest man-made substance in the world, the original Vantablack is so black the human eye can't quite decipher what it is seeing.
It is said to be the closest thing to a black hole we will ever experience.
That's because Vantablack is not a color, it's the almost complete absence of color.
Since the material was first developed by Surrey NanoSystems three years ago, the British firm has been flooded with inquiries from designers, architects and aerospace engineers -- and even people who want to wrap themselves in it or eat it.
Part of the appeal of the original Vantablack is that it absorbs 99.96% of the light that hits its surface.
"When you have no light reflected back to the viewer, you see nothing, so your brain paints it as black," Ben Jensen, co-founder of Surrey NanoSystems tells CNN.
When used as a coating, Vantablack appears to change the dimensions of an object, rendering 3D objects completely flat.
It's this absence of color, light and depth that first drew Khan to Vantablack.
"To break the fundamental rules of perception, as this material does, turns 3D things into 2D things, it absorbs light instead of reflecting light, it's as powerful as switching off gravity. That's the possibility of it in architecture," said Khan.

Breaking down Vantablack -- can I eat it?

One square centimeter of Vantablack consists of about one billion carbon nanotubes spaced perfectly apart. When light comes in it is bounced around and ultimately trapped and converted to heat.
"Carbon nanotubes are like very, very long blades of grass," explains Jensen. "Now you imagine if you were a human walking around in grass 1,000 feet tall how little light would get down to you. It's like that but on a very tiny scale."
The nanotubes are "grown" under powerful lamps that bring the surface temperature to 430 degrees Celsius or higher.


Each carbon nanotube measures roughly one millionth of a millimeter.

The spray-applied version used by Khan isn't based on carbon nanotubes and absorbs 99% of the light that hits its surface.
Vantablack was originally designed for engineering in space, but, since launching in 2014, Jensen has been inundated with requests to use the material.
"The inquiries built like an avalanche... everything from superstars wanting to coat their guitars in it to people wanting to coat their cars in it," he says.
The strangest request Jensen received was from someone wanting to film themselves eating it and then post the video on YouTube. "Obviously that's not a really good idea," Jensen says.
Nor is crafting a little (Vanta)black dress, as the material would irritate your skin, and you'd look like shapeless piece of cardboard.

But the material has been used in a $95,000 limited-edition watch by Swiss watchmaker MCT. Set against a Vantablack background, the elements of the watch seem to be floating in a bottomless void.
The nanotubes are "grown" at temperatures of 430 degrees Celsius or higher.


Photos: Vantablack: The world's darkest material
The world's darkest material – Vantablack has been used in various aesthetic applications including this luxury watch by Manufacture Contemporaine du Temps (MCT) in Switzerland.

Blacking out light in space

A company in Sweden is using Vantablack to coat the inside of an optical telescope, which will be attached to a microsatellite. The coating will block stray light from the sun and city lights.
"We would like to make sure that the light that comes from the telescope comes from the atmosphere and not from any disturbing sources," says engineer Arvid Hammer of Omnisys Instruments.
By doing so, scientific researchers can get clearer pictures of the atmosphere and better data to improve current climate models, he explains. This can help make better weather and global warming predictions.


Vantablack coated baffle for tracking stars.

Despite this range of applications, Jensen is keen to stress Vantablack cannot simply be "painted" on just anything.
"There's this misconception out there that it's a black paint. It's not," says Jensen. "It's something that's grown through very complex means ... definitely not something you can paint out of a bucket."
Clarification: This story has been updated to better clarify the type of materials architect Asif Khan is using in his designs.

"can i eat it?" NOT a freakin tide pod...

Thread: Vantablack
Thread: Winter Olympics

[GeneChing]

I'd see this band just for that stage.

REPORT
HOW GESAFFELSTEIN’S COACHELLA SET TRICKED MINDS WITH THE WORLD’S BLACKEST BLACK
The prince of darkness now performs against the darkest darkness
By Dani Deahl@danideahl Apr 24, 2019, 8:30am EDT

One of the most visually impressive performances at this year’s Coachella was special, not just because of what the audience could see, but because of what they couldn’t see. Behind Gesaffelstein, the French record producer and DJ, was a monolith covered entirely in Vantablack, a very scarce, very expensive, and quite fragile material made by Surrey NanoSystems in the UK. It’s the world’s blackest black, erasing any visible features on a 3D surface and making objects very disorienting for the brain. Gesaffelstein’s show producer, Matthias Leullier, laughs as he tells The Verge how difficult it was for their own team to be around it. “One of our sound engineers was onstage and found himself in the monolith,” says Leullier. “[He] became confused and lost his balance. He fell, hit the surface, and I was like, ‘Okay that’s $20,000.’”

Gesaffelstein is colloquially known as the prince of darkness, but he took his informal title to extremes at this year’s Coachella by becoming the first artist to use Vantablack in a live performance. It wasn’t easy, either. It required the team to visit Surrey NanoSystems in person, pitch the idea, create the set, have each block of the monolith sprayed with 70 layers of Vantablack in a special application room, and construct handling systems for the finished set.

The end result: a 30 foot-high Vantablack monolith that can split in two and reveal video screens and a wall of lights. Looking at it creates the feeling that Gesaffelstein is standing in front of infinite darkness.

“THIS IS EXACTLY WHY WE WERE SOBER AND THOUGHT WE WERE TRIPPIN BALLS.”

People in the audience at Coachella could tell something wasn’t registering quite right in their brains during Gesaffelstein’s performance. “This is exactly why we were sober and thought we were trippin balls,” one audience member commented on Twitter after learning about the Vantablack. “Remember me saying that was prob really expensive since it was absorbing all the light?” said another.

When I tell Leullier about these tweets, he’s delighted. “That’s exactly the kind of confusion we were going for.”



Vantablack is confusing to look at because our brains aren’t prepared to see total darkness when there’s light directly beside it, as we’d expect it to illuminate the darkened object or space. “You’re used to standing in a completely dark room in the middle of the night, but you’re not used to seeing absolute blackness with a lot of light around it,” explains Ben Jensen, CTO of Surrey NanoSystems. “When you see that nothingness with light around it, your mind can be quite confused, and your perception of things like depth is severely challenged.”

To make the effect even more mind-warping, Gesaffelstein’s team gave the monolith curves. On a 2D surface, Vantablack’s effect is a little bit simpler for the brain to understand because it already knows it’s looking at something flat. But on a 3D surface, the mind is further confused because it knows there should be depth, while the object appears flat. That inconsistency can be quite jarring. “When you apply it to a three-dimensional surface, your perception of the shape changes,” says Jansen, “and you recognize there’s something a little bit different than what you’re used to seeing.”


The stage plot for Gesaffelstein’s Coachella performance with Vantablack monolith. Image: PRG scenic

Every part of Gesaffelstein’s set played off of this effect. Lights coming from behind the monolith enhanced Vantablack’s light-sucking abilities. And his performance happened on an outdoor stage just after sunset when there was ambient light. “That’s why his set was at twilight,” says Leullier. “It’s when people could best see the contrast.”

Gesaffelstein was also coated in black. His outfit, however, wasn’t Vantablack. It was a more reflective black that was meant to let him stand out against the darkness behind him. The outfit was created in collaboration with Balmain, and it’s made of an array of materials, including velvets, metals, leathers, and sequins. “We wanted something that would ‘talk’ with the Vantablack,” explains Gesaffelstein’s manager, Manu Barron. “By having shiny black against the Vantablack, it highlights the difference.”


Photo by Frazer Harrison

Vantablack is a brand name, and Surrey NanoSystems makes several types of super black materials under this umbrella. There’s the original Vantablack, Vantablack S-IR; Vantablack S-VIS, the one mired in controversy with artist Anish Kapoor; Vantablack VBx 1; and the type Gesaffelstein used, Vantablack VBx 2. Most versions of Vantablack use a dense coating of carbon nanotubes that trap almost all light that hits its surface. It works by continually deflecting light around the tubes until it is almost entirely absorbed. This makes it a useful material for industrial and space purposes, like improving the accuracy of star trackers. But it comes with conditions: the application process limits it to smaller items, and all of the micro-cavities between the tubes can be damaged with direct contact.


A Vantablack spray room at Surrey NanoSystems. Photo by Benjamin Males / Levitation29

VBx 1 and VBx 2, though, don’t use nanotubes at all, and that means they’re a bit more durable and better suited for large-scale applications like Gesaffelstein’s monolith. This type of Vantablack is composed of a light-absorbing coating that’s suspended in a solution and can be sprayed onto larger areas. Jensen declined to say exactly what it’s made of. “It’s a completely new technology,” says Jensen. “The coating transfers from the gun to a surface, and it forms a nanostructure the moment it hits that surface. There’s nothing you have to do to it once you’ve sprayed it. If you look at the structure up very close it appears quite rough, but I’m talking about thousandths of an inch.”

YOUR BRAIN ISN’T USED TO SEEING ABSOLUTE BLACKNESS WITH A LOT OF LIGHT AROUND IT

Jensen says VBx 2 is more durable than other forms of Vantablack, but Gesaffelstein’s team still couldn’t treat it like normal stage equipment. It can technically be handled, but because of its very dry texture, a greasy finger could damage the optical trapping cavities, and it’s still susceptible to scratches. “It’s not like a paint. It’s more like a crust,” says Leullier. “Our crew had a lot of problems with it because it’s super dry. It’s a bit like dust. If you put a finger on it, it will leave a mark. We had to have a special painter from London [at rehearsals] to repair it in case of scratches.”

The team also had to think about transportation. How do you move a show set from city to city when it can’t be touched at all? Leullier designed a custom dolly system for the monolith pieces to ensure they would never be in contact with other surfaces while traveling. He put special handling frames behind them so they would never have to be touched from the front, and Surrey NanoSystems trained one of the tour’s crew members on how to apply VBx 2 for touch-ups while on the road.


Gesaffelstein’s monolith being sprayed with VBx 2 at Surrey NanoSystems. Video by Ben Jensen

“It was a lot, but we were so happy with the results once we finally saw it come together,” says Leullier. “Is it expensive? Yes. Was it worth it? Yes. Gesaffelstein is a total artist and it made so much sense that we had to make it happen, no matter the constraints.”

Gesaffelstein just announced a tour featuring this production called “Against the Night, Across the Time.” He will appear at the Governors Ball in New York City in May and then hit various US cities in the fall.

[GeneChing]

Sorry, Anish Kapoor: MIT Scientists Made the Blackest Black Ever Invented, and an Artist Just Used It to Do Something Magical
Coated with the new super-black, a $2 million diamond has become the gem that absorbs all light.

Eileen Kinsella, September 17, 2019


Diemut Strebe, The Redemption of Vanity at the New York Stock Exchange.
Photo by Eileen Kinsella

In a remarkable new mashup of art and science, an artist has used the blackest black ever created to make a 16.78-carat yellow diamond completely “disappear.” The result of the intensive 5-year long project called The Redemption of Vanity, the super-black diamond currently sits on view in an unlikely, but—as explained to artnet News—very fitting venue: the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street.

The project is a collaboration between German-born, Boston-based Diemut Strebe, an artist-in-residence at the MIT Center for Art, Science, and Technology, and Brian Wardle, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, along with Wardle’s group, necstlab. The diamond—graciously supplied by jeweler LJ West after the artist was turned down by a string of famous diamond merchants over branding concerns—sits in a glass vitrine inside the NYSE’s elaborate Federalist-style boardroom. It has been coated with ultrablack carbon nanotubes (also called CNTs), microscopic filaments of carbon that capture at least 99.995 percent of any incoming light, making it the blackest material in existence.

The effect is stunning. The normally sparkling gem appears to the viewer as a flat, black void. As an added flourish, large magnifying glasses set on either side of the vitrine allow viewers to peer through to get an even better look at… well, nothing.


A magnifying glass on the side of the vitrine holding the diamond. Photo by Eileen Kinsella

“Everybody knows that diamonds are the most reflective material on earth,” Strebe told artnet News during the unveiling this past Friday (September 13). “This diamond, which is valued at $2 million, is covered with the blackest black on earth and kind of makes the diamond disappear.”

Professor Wardle, who has already received inquiries about CNTs from several artists in the US, praised the artist for helping push the boundaries of the technology. “Strebe’s art-science collaboration caused us to look at the optical properties of our new CNT growth, and we discovered that these particular CNTs are blacker than all other reported materials by an order of magnitude across the visible spectrum.”

In the future, the MIT team is offering the process for any artist to use. “We do not believe in exclusive ownership of any material or idea for any artwork and have opened our method to any artist,” he explained.


The boardroom at the New York Stock Exchange. Photo by Eileen Kinsella

The scientist also told artnet News that he is also currently in talks with NASA about applying the technology to telescopes for searching out exoplanets. “There are many scientific instruments—particularly optical ones—where stray light interferes with the sensing, so they need ultra-black materials to absorb unwanted light,” Wardle explained.

In a statement from MIT, the team behind The Redemption of Vanity also took a swipe at British artist Anish Kapoor, who had moved to get exclusive rights to “Vantablack,” a previous form of light-swallowing paint: “The project can also be interpreted as a statement against British artist Anish Kapoor’s purchase of exclusive rights to a formula of carbon nanotubes as a material for artworks. Strebe and Wardle use a different composition of carbon nanotubes, which will be available for any artist to use.”


The yellow diamond before and after coating with carbon nano-tubes. Image by Diemut Strebe

Uniting Extremes
Strebe describes the current art project as “the unification of the most opposite extremes,” in this case the transformation of a diamond, prized for its brilliance and meant to be shown off, into a kind of non-presence.

The carefully chosen venue—the largest stock exchange in the world—also plays a key role in the concept behind the project. “I thought it would be interesting to present the object here—the holy grail of value determination and generation—which is much different than a museum. This is an interesting place to contemplate value and its man-made arbitrary character.”

Anyone familiar with Strebe’s work and her interest in both science and philosophy will not be entirely surprised at this innovative new presentation. Her previous work, called Sugababe, was also a multi-year undertaking. It involved creating a living replica of the ear of Vincent van Gogh, grown from tissue-engineered cartilage, using cells from a male descendant that she says contained natural genetic information about the artist, and mitochondria from a female descendant of the artist’s mother.


A woman looks on the living replica of Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh’s famously severed ear which is displayed at Culture and media museum ZKM, in Karlsruhe, southwestern Germany, on June 4, 2014. Photo: Thomas Kienzle/AFP/Getty Images.

Strebe has also collaborated with several other MIT faculty members, including Noam Chomsky, Robert Langer, and Regina Barzilay. Yet as immersed as she is in the realm of art and science, she told artnet News, she also envied those working in less experimental media: “Sometimes I’m very jealous of painters. The duration of art and science projects is very complicated and long.”

The Redemption of Vanity remains on view at the New York Stock Exchange through November 25, by appointment.

'super-black'? srsly? vantablack is a far superior name.

[GeneChing]