I’m getting the feeling he really doesn’t like Anish. Every page I’ve looked at has Anish mentioned. The anal apocalypse is especially for him. The glow in the dark pigment is free, if you can prove that you are associated with him to share the light.
most artists dislike the entire idea of copyrighting a color for the singular purpose of limiting its use to one person. some people care more about copyrights than others.
Pretty sure vantablack was patented not copyrighted.
It’s also possible that is wasn’t either and just was really hard to produce.
Afaik vantablack isn’t really designed to be be painted and requires quite specialised equipment.
They sell it as a paint, however : “Controversy arose when Surrey Nanosystems granted Anish Kapoor exclusive rights to use Vantablack in artistic applications. Many artists voiced opposition to his monopoly over the substance.”
Thats the beef. If you try to get or use it, Amish Kapoor will typically take legal action.
Also, hes never really made any compelling art with it either.
He’s the guy who made that big silver sculpture in Chicago. He intensely dislikes that everyone calls it The Bean because he named it Cloud Gate. Really, he made a giant sculpture in a public place that is shaped like a massive shiny kidney bean and is big mad that people call it a bean. Seems like hes kind of a thin skinned baby.
This is drama from a decade ago so don’t take it as gospel: Iirc, the contract Kapoor signed with Surrey gave him the right to enforce the patent when used in art or aesthetic design applications. I can’t remember if he sues as an involved party on behalf of Surrey or if he somehow has the right to sue directly, but the effect is the same. Basically Surrey didn’t want to deal with enforicng it, and signed over that as part of the exclusivity deal.
The company that makes the paint version of VantaBlack licensed it only to one guy to use, the art community felt that was unfair. Thus the pink, and I think a new black etc.etc.
I see this posted a lot and I get the feeling that this guy just makes a big deal about the other guy being an asshole so he can make money for himself. He seems like just as big of an asshole haha
Who knows. It’s harmless drama if it’s a marketing gimmick, or they could just be rivals playing off each other. Childish, sure, but spite can be motivating — the guy does make great quality products.
Like James Randi and Uri Geller. Randi made a career out of debunking snake oil salesfolks but there was no question about how much he despised Geller.
But first you must face the Captcha test to prove that you are, in fact, not Anish Kapoor.
Meanwhile Kapoor, not using a VPN - “Curses! Foiled again!”
EDIT:
Has this ever happened to you? That’s why I use AnishKapoorVPN, you are just a few clicks away from being able to jump through so many hurdles it’ll make your head spin.
Try AnishKapoorVPN today, and tell them Anish Kappor sent ya, use the checkout code VantaVantaNyahNyahNyah.
Serious question: If his black is the blackest and absorbs all light, why does that gadget/ trinket in the second video on this site cast a gray shadow? To my understanding, it should either cast a completely black shadow, or no shadow at all.
The reason the shadow is gray is because light is bouncing off the other surfaces in the environment. The shadowed area isn’t receiving direct light, but it is receiving reflected indirect light.
Your logic assumes there’s only one light source, no atmospheric dispersion, light is a particle, and everything around the object is non-reflective. And it’s moved to a white background, something we know reflects light.
Edit: This sounds bitchier than I intended so I’m adding in: questions are great and I upvoted you for it.
Any light source they’re using isn’t a single beam of photons, it’s a cast cone of light. Actually multiple cones because mostly it’s LED array lighting.
So there’s an (effectively) infinite number of shadows because it’s being hit by photons coming from multiple angles, from multiple little light cones.
The shadows form a distributed pattern behind.
There’s other factors like scattering within the media the photons travel through (air) as well as refraction.
e: I tried to make it make more sense. Its about understanding that a light sources are cones of light hitting from many angles at once.
On the backdrop you mean? That would be from light refracting off of other places in the background and converging behind the gadget, partially illuminating the shadow.
Oh wow, what a huge memory triggered! The total prioritization of whiz-bang on that site.
Shot me back to 1998(?ish?) where I met an absolutely amazing artist who started with street and scene art, huge airbrushed murals, and moved into digital media. He was an absolutely drug-addled, unprofessional lunatic. But also the best, if you could ever as the creative lead, draw a circle around him. We made a lot of games that were very bog-standard mechanically, but he took the creative design to places nobody had been in terms of visual game design. I love/hated him and I affectionately called him Mad Dog and it stuck at work lol
This website reminded me of his personal side project Dr Wash. I remember him showing off his site to me, which at the time was truly a marvel of what could be done artistically on the Web. After browsing every section and page, I was left with one question to him: What is it you actually do or sell?? I meant it! lol
This memory hit me when it took me 30 seconds of mystery meat navigation, then no-scrollbar but need to infini-scroll down to hopefully find textual information that actually says something. Etc. Some things never change haha
He made a competing black that anyone can buy, too.
https://culturehustle.com/
Nice, finally something to fight Superman with.
I’m getting the feeling he really doesn’t like Anish. Every page I’ve looked at has Anish mentioned. The anal apocalypse is especially for him. The glow in the dark pigment is free, if you can prove that you are associated with him to share the light.
Do they have some big feud going on?
most artists dislike the entire idea of copyrighting a color for the singular purpose of limiting its use to one person. some people care more about copyrights than others.
Pretty sure vantablack was patented not copyrighted. It’s also possible that is wasn’t either and just was really hard to produce. Afaik vantablack isn’t really designed to be be painted and requires quite specialised equipment.
They sell it as a paint, however : “Controversy arose when Surrey Nanosystems granted Anish Kapoor exclusive rights to use Vantablack in artistic applications. Many artists voiced opposition to his monopoly over the substance.”
Thats the beef. If you try to get or use it, Amish Kapoor will typically take legal action.
Also, hes never really made any compelling art with it either.
He’s the guy who made that big silver sculpture in Chicago. He intensely dislikes that everyone calls it The Bean because he named it Cloud Gate. Really, he made a giant sculpture in a public place that is shaped like a massive shiny kidney bean and is big mad that people call it a bean. Seems like hes kind of a thin skinned baby.
If I remember correctly the company that gave him permission to use vantablack never gave him the ownership of it.
So presumably Amish couldn’t do anything personally about it.
This is drama from a decade ago so don’t take it as gospel: Iirc, the contract Kapoor signed with Surrey gave him the right to enforce the patent when used in art or aesthetic design applications. I can’t remember if he sues as an involved party on behalf of Surrey or if he somehow has the right to sue directly, but the effect is the same. Basically Surrey didn’t want to deal with enforicng it, and signed over that as part of the exclusivity deal.
The company that makes the paint version of VantaBlack licensed it only to one guy to use, the art community felt that was unfair. Thus the pink, and I think a new black etc.etc.
does anyone like Anish Kapoor?
No
Website seems to force a login to even browse the store?
Weird, works fine on mobile for me
Are you already logged in / automatically logging in to shopify?
nope, don’t even have an account with them
Could be a vpn or location issue? It’s just a listing for another super matte black this artist made to fuck with Anish.
Same. What a ridiculous practice.
I went straight in with no login or sign-up needed.
Seems like only certain people are affected and nothing to do with website practices.
Something seems to be sending me to shopify when the page loads
Culture Hustle’s chrome makes not metal things look like metal, not metal colored, look like metal. Also Semple’s glow pigments are intense.
Disaster of a website. Just why?
I don’t know how to answer that question. Because of the tides? Because of a love of dance? Because they knew you were coming?
it forces a login just to browse it - I hope it’s unintentional
I think it’s a region thing, I wasn’t blocked. Someone here posted a screenshot for those who can’t get in.
I can’t see specifics of what they sell without “signing in”? Fuck that.
Mobile looks fine enough
Really? I just get an immediate login wall on mobile.
Ya here it is in part
Same here, it launches me into a “how do you want to login” page
That’s weird. I just get the homepage
I see this posted a lot and I get the feeling that this guy just makes a big deal about the other guy being an asshole so he can make money for himself. He seems like just as big of an asshole haha
Who knows. It’s harmless drama if it’s a marketing gimmick, or they could just be rivals playing off each other. Childish, sure, but spite can be motivating — the guy does make great quality products.
Like James Randi and Uri Geller. Randi made a career out of debunking snake oil salesfolks but there was no question about how much he despised Geller.
Yeah his paint is good. I got the black though and it’s just a matt black lol. Maybe a little darker than some other matt blacks.
The pinkest pink sure seems pink but there could be a pinker pink how do you measure pinkness?
I’m more of a hot pink person myself. I would try the hottest pink for sure.
But first you must face the Captcha test to prove that you are, in fact, not Anish Kapoor.
Meanwhile Kapoor, not using a VPN - “Curses! Foiled again!”
Serious question: If his black is the blackest and absorbs all light, why does that gadget/ trinket in the second video on this site cast a gray shadow? To my understanding, it should either cast a completely black shadow, or no shadow at all.
The reason the shadow is gray is because light is bouncing off the other surfaces in the environment. The shadowed area isn’t receiving direct light, but it is receiving reflected indirect light.
I don’t know where you got that idea.
Your logic assumes there’s only one light source, no atmospheric dispersion, light is a particle, and everything around the object is non-reflective. And it’s moved to a white background, something we know reflects light.
Edit: This sounds bitchier than I intended so I’m adding in: questions are great and I upvoted you for it.
Imagine how shadows on earth would look if our sun was actually a cosmic LED bulb array with 9 bulbs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbra%2C_penumbra_and_antumbra
Any light source they’re using isn’t a single beam of photons, it’s a cast cone of light. Actually multiple cones because mostly it’s LED array lighting.
So there’s an (effectively) infinite number of shadows because it’s being hit by photons coming from multiple angles, from multiple little light cones.
The shadows form a distributed pattern behind.
There’s other factors like scattering within the media the photons travel through (air) as well as refraction.
e: I tried to make it make more sense. Its about understanding that a light sources are cones of light hitting from many angles at once.
On the backdrop you mean? That would be from light refracting off of other places in the background and converging behind the gadget, partially illuminating the shadow.
Oh wow, what a huge memory triggered! The total prioritization of whiz-bang on that site.
Shot me back to 1998(?ish?) where I met an absolutely amazing artist who started with street and scene art, huge airbrushed murals, and moved into digital media. He was an absolutely drug-addled, unprofessional lunatic. But also the best, if you could ever as the creative lead, draw a circle around him. We made a lot of games that were very bog-standard mechanically, but he took the creative design to places nobody had been in terms of visual game design. I love/hated him and I affectionately called him Mad Dog and it stuck at work lol
This website reminded me of his personal side project Dr Wash. I remember him showing off his site to me, which at the time was truly a marvel of what could be done artistically on the Web. After browsing every section and page, I was left with one question to him: What is it you actually do or sell?? I meant it! lol
This memory hit me when it took me 30 seconds of mystery meat navigation, then no-scrollbar but need to infini-scroll down to hopefully find textual information that actually says something. Etc. Some things never change haha