7 ms·
Vanta Black isn’t a paint, it’s an achievement of materials science. It very much does look like a black hole in space in the real world. These “blackest black”
by ikmckenz 3y ago
Vanta Black isn’t a paint, it’s an achievement of materials science. It very much does look like a black hole in space in the real world. These “blackest black” paints are just clout chasing by some guy attempting to profit from the situation where a materials science company doesn’t want to work with thousands of artists, because their real customers are like defence and telecom companies, and they are nothing like the real Vanta Black.
- Toutouxc 3y agoIsn't Black 4.0 supposed to be about as black (absorbs 99.96% of visible light) as Vantablack, even though it's just "a paint"? (I have no idea what it's made of)
- kylebenzle 3y agoBlack 3.0 can absorb up to 99.0% of observable light. Musou - 99.4% Vantablack’s S-Vis spray - 99.8% Black 4.0 - 99.95%. Vantablack - 99.965%
- kawhah 3y agoSo in other words, Black 4.0 'just a paint' is imperceptible from Vantablack using human vision, and the Anish Kapoor thing was just a publicity stunt?
- mrpopo 3y agoSee: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anish_Kapoor#Vantablack_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anish_Kapoor#Vantablack_contro... It's a reaction to Anish Kapoor's exclusive licensing of Vantablack, regarded as abusive in the art world.
- kawhah 3y agoDid you reply to my comment without reading all the way to the end of the sentence?
- nabla9 3y agoNo. These numbers are measured perpendicular. Vanta Black has low total hemispherical reflectance below 1% from all angles, others don't.
- Xixi 3y agoLooking at it the other way, Black 4.0 reflects 0.05% of the light, and Vantablack 0.035%. So Black 4.0 reflects about 40% more light. The difference is not that small. On the other hand, Vantablack is highly toxic (similar to asbestos), while Black 4.0 should be quite a lot safer.
- kawhah 3y agoRight but 40% of something very small is also very small. If you are experiencing the two blacks in a normal ambient environment around lighting and other non highly light absorbent surfaces, they will look extremely similar.
- hughesjj 3y agoIsn't light (luminosity) perception logarithmic?
- kawhah 3y agoNo, the logarithmic effect bottoms out towards the low part of the scale. If you're somewhere very dark, your eye adjusts so that you get back to the middle of the range. But if you're somewhere light and just looking at black paint, it doesn't.
- kritr 3y agoHaving seen his exhibit in Venice. I will say, in the right contexts it really does look like a black hole. This doesn’t require limited lighting, just regular room lighting. 3d objects painted with it will disappear into themselves as if it was 2d.
- kawhah 3y agothe question is whether or not the same would happen with 'conventional' black paints.