Ben Jensen: The Inventor of Darkness
Vantablack and exclusivity as moral problem
Surrey NanoSystems, led by Ben Jensen, created Vantablack—a carbon-nanotube coating that absorbs 99.965% of light, creating an uncanny visual void where the eye sees no surface at all. When artist Anish Kapoor obtained exclusive artistic rights, it sparked a cultural war over who can own a sensation. Jensen's material became a test case for the ethics of exclusivity.
The Science of Blackest Black
Vantablack isn't a pigment but a structure: forests of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes at the nanoscale. Light entering this forest bounces between nanotubes, losing energy with each reflection until virtually nothing escapes. The effect is perceptual annihilation—objects coated in Vantablack appear to have no shape, only absence.
Originally developed for stray-light control in space and optical systems, Vantablack found unexpected cultural resonance. Artists, designers, and luxury watchmakers all wanted access to a black that was qualitatively different from any black that had existed before.
Why It Matters for Luxury
The Vantablack controversy crystallized questions about luxury and access. When Kapoor obtained exclusive rights, other artists protested—Stuart Semple created "the pinkest pink" and banned Kapoor from purchasing it. The dispute was partly about intellectual property and partly about whether anyone should be able to own a perceptual experience.
For luxury watches, Vantablack offered something genuinely new: dials that appeared to be holes in reality. But the exclusivity debates followed the material into commercial applications. Jensen's invention became a case study in how novel sensations become status markers—and who gets to gatekeep them.
The Science: Vantablack
Jensen's carbon nanotube technology in detail—the physics of how a "forest" of vertically aligned nanotubes creates the world's darkest material, and how H. Moser applies it to luxury watch dials.
Research
- Ultrablack Carbon Nanotube Arrays (Nature) — Foundational optical‑absorption work on vertically aligned CNT forests — July 2010
- Vantablack: A New Benchmark for Absorption (Optical Materials Express) — Optical characterization and performance of Vantablack coatings — November 2014
Product / Brand Links
- Vantablack "Our Story" — Official overview of the coating, its nanotube structure, and 99.965% light absorption
- H. Moser Endeavour Tourbillon Concept Vantablack — A flagship Vantablack dial example in luxury watchmaking
- Surrey NanoSystems Partners to Combat Satellite Light Pollution — Vantablack 310 coating used for space stray-light control — October 2024
News & Coverage
- Wired: Vantablack vs. The Pinkest Pink — The exclusivity controversy and artist backlash — July 2016
- The Guardian: Vantablack exclusive rights debate — Cultural response to exclusive artistic licensing — July 2016