DI.02.01- Project Araphel

Author: Various
Rev History
Rev .00 - 09/26/16
Rev .01 - 03/17/2022

The Project Araphel Archive

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Press Release

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Newhaven, East Sussex, UK, 26/02/2016, 7:34am GMT, Surrey NanoSystems 

What is Vantablack™?

Vantablack™ surface coating is not paint, pigment or fabric, but a functional ‘micro-forest’ of millions upon millions of incredibly small nano tubes made of carbon (CNT). Every nanotube in the Vantablack™ forest has an approximate diameter of twenty nanometers. That’s about 3,500 times smaller than the diameter of the average human hair! Despite it’s inconceivable thinness, each nanotube can measure twenty-five microns in length, allowing for a material density previously non-manufacturable. One cubic centimeter of Vantablack™ surface area contains approximately one billion nanotubes.

What does Vantablack™ look like?

Some say that it is impossible to “see” Vantablack™ as so little light is reflected from the surface. However, any observer’s brain will, of course, try to make sense of what it is seeing, with the result that some people describe it like looking into a deep hole! A piece of aluminum foil that has been creased and wrinkled in a random fashion and then coated in our patented Vantablack™ process will take on the appearance of being a smoothly flat black surface or even a void in space. The almost total lack of light reflected from the Vantablack™ surface prevents the eye from detecting any surface detail.

How dark is it?

Vantablack™ has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s darkest man-made substance. It is the darkest material ever measured by the national physical laboratory in Teddington, UK, reflecting only 0.036% of the light that strikes it.

Why is it so dark?

Light striking a Vantablack™ surface enters the space between the nanotubes and is rapidly absorbed as it bounces from tube to tube and simply cannot escape as the tubes are so long in relation to their diameter and the space between them. The near total lack of reflectance creates almost perfect black surfaces. To understand the effect, try to imagine walking in a forest in which the trees were nearly two miles tall.

Is Vantablack™ safe?

Yes, in suitable applications.

Can I use Vantablack™ in Art?

Vantablack™ is generally not suitable for use in art due to the way in-which it’s made. The coating’s performance beyond the visible spectrum results in it being classified as a dual use material subject to UK Export Control. We have therefore chosen to license Vantablack™ exclusively to Kapoor Studios UK to limit the exploration of Vantablack™ as an artistic medium to Mr. Kapoor’s careful discretion.

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Tweet

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ARTWAR @Art(a)War – Feb 29

#AnishKapoor has absorbed 99.96% of himself. http://dailysnail.com/27/02/573023

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Online Article

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ARTISTS AT WAR AFTER TOP SCULPTOR IS GIVEN EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS TO PUREST BLACK PAINT EVER WHICH IS USED ON  STEALTH JETS

PUBLISHED: 6:08 pm EST – 27 Feb 2016

By: Alina Sooke

For most of us, black is black. But the great artists find the subject of the color spectrum a more nuanced discussion. Which is why one artist, Sir Anish Kapoor has the Art world up in arms. Working with Surry NanoSystems,  Kapoor has redefined what it means to “Paint it Black.”

Vantablack, originally designed to disguise satellites and advance the range of Stellar telescopes, is a Black so dark your eyes can barely see it. Kapoor describes it himself as being “so black, it has a kind of unreal quality to it. I have always been attracted to rather exotic materials because of what they can make you feel. Imagine a space so dark, that as you walk in, you lose all sense of who you are, what you are and also all sense of time. Something happens to your emotional self and in disorientation you have to reach inside yourself for something else.”

But not every artist shares the Kapoor vision for Vantablack’s limited use. Christian Furr, the youngest artist ever commissioned to paint the Queen, had planned to use Vantablack in a series of paintings called “Animals”. Upon finding out that the material was unavailable for artistic use, he had this to say: “I’ve never heard of an artist monopolizing a material like this, and I think it is criminal. Using pure black in an artwork grounds it. All the best artists have had a thing for pure black – Turner, Monet, Goya. This black is like dynamite in the art world and Kapoor is using it to hold us all hostage.”

When asked to respond to Mr. Furr’s comments, Kapoor said, “If Christian really needed a deeper shade of black for his little paintings, maybe he should have invested the time and resources to invent one like I did.”

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Tweet

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Paint Missbehavin @PaintMissy_1 – Feb 29

What is #AnishKapoor up to that requires exclusive rights to #VantaBlack ? #Illumniati ? #NewWorldOrder

Tadeas Waves @ Tadeas4All – Feb 29

@PaintMissy_1 IDK but here in Egypt he has #ProjectAraphel http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com//2014/03/Kapooring-into-town

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Online Article

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EGYPTIAN CHRONICLES: The Egypt you don’t know

Friday, March 18, 2014 – KAPOORING INTO TOWN

ST. CATHERINE – Over the last two weeks, this quaint tourist town has seen an influx of large trucks and construction equipment but if you ask a local, no one seems to know why? Well an inside Chronicler has done some digging and given us the scoop! A construction camp has been established a mile south of the township, containing at least 4 JBC back actor tractors and 16 cargo cars delivered by semi-trucks. Although none of the drivers could identify the contents of their crates, the paperwork is made out in the name of Kapoor Studios UK, which is the production company of the recently knighted British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor, creator of the ‘ArcelorMittal Orbit’ Olympic Tower in 2012.

What is an artist of Kapoor’s stature doing out in the deserts of Sinai?  Speculation will remain rampant as almost an entire square kilometer has been fenced off out in a desert valley and the construction team remains tightlipped about their work. The only bit of news we have been able to get is from a township official wishing to remain anonymous. He says that Mr. Kapoor’s Studio has purchased rights to a remote site for a private art installation that will be several years in the constructing. Despite our relentless questioning, we could get no additional information from Kapoor Studios other than being told to look forward to Project Araphel in the first half of the year 2016. For now, that cryptic name appears to be all the studio is willing to reveal, but you can be sure the Egyptian Chronicles will keep you, our faithful readers, in the know as more information becomes available.

Posted by Atom at 2:37 PM

Labels: Mt. Sinai, Anish Kapoor, Art, St. Catherine

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Reference Research

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NAS Old Testament Hebrew  Lexicon

Araphel,

Definition:

1. cloud, heavy or dark cloud, darkness, gross darkness, thick darkness.

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Derasha

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Transcription from a Shabbat service provided by Rabbi Jacobs at Temple Israel, Alton, Illinois, 1987:

…As we read this week from the book of Exodus, I remind you that we have two words in Hebrew that translate as darkness. The first is Hhoshekh, which is most typically used in the Torah to mean the darkness of a night sky or a dark pit. The second word we have for darkness is Araphel, and it has a meaning that is something more than just darkness. In Exodus 20:21 we read, “And Moses approached the ‘Araphel’ where Adoni was.”

So often, even in our own Torah, we associate the darkness with evil, light with goodness. But here in Exodus we are reminded of ‘Araphel.’ Of the darkness in which Adoni comes to us….

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Tweet

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BUSH Burnz @TheBushIsBurning – March 1

#ProjectAraphel #KapoorSpeaks: “To build a sculpture that is not a sculpture, just a hole in space. This to me is a parallel for any God”

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Reference Research

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Excerpt translated from the Xhong Hua Da Dian (The Great Encyclopedia of China), Vol. 78 page 576:

Kowloon Walled City –  (Hong Kong Island, 1960 to 1999) On a site measuring 100 meters by 100 meters were squeezed some 288 buildings, rising 288 meters or more and so tightly packed that no alleyways, stairwells or corridors existed between them. Referenced by locals as “The city of Darkness.”

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Excerpted from Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Puranic, by W.J Wilkins [1900] page 272:

Sankara replied: “I am, O lovely one, without a shelter, a constant wanderer in the forest.” Having spoken, Sankara with Sati, remained through the hot season in the shadow of tall trees until the season of the sun succeeded into dark clouds…

…Having spoken thus, Siva stopped a cloud of darkness, and with the daughter of Daksha, fixed his abode within it.

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Advertisement

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found in the Al-Ahram Gate, 15/01/2016, translated from Arabic:

 

Wanted: 288 Free spirits [alhurrat ruh], make MILLIONS!

Have you desired always a life of high art and culture? Now is your chance! Do not just see art, BE ART NOW, in the desert of Sinai. Must have good vision; be strong of limb, and craving to adventure. Successful applicants will be granted opportunity to earn as much as 10 million EGP upon completion of exhibition. No obscenity or disgracing required, just two week commitment in the month of March. Call +20 0800 351 5189 for this once in a life time opportunity to be a part of Project Araphel.

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Bird Song

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Sinai, Egypt – A bird song, of the Sand Grouse, recorded and transcribed into English 21/01/2015:

We fly no more toward mountain home

where darkness come and kissed Earth stone

Abyss to eye that knows no end

consuming sky its tendrils rend

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Email

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From: Editor@blackunicornpress.org

To: Blackunicornpress@gmail.com

Date: Friday, March 3, 2016 at 4:08am CST

Subject: Project (A)raphel

BUPers,

Been a while. Took me a turn to get out here to St. Catherine from Cairo but our contact came through with the information. Whatever is happening out here in the desert is happening soon.  The luxury bus that was transporting the participants beat me out here and has already left for Kapoor’s camp earlier this morning (it is just after noon Sinai time). Apparently “The Artist”, as he is being referred to around here, arrived about a month ago to finish up the project, and hasn’t been seen in town since. I need to be careful, because that reporter from the Chronicle has already got himself landed in jail for trying to break into the camp, and, as an American with a funny haircut, I am under close scrutiny everywhere I go. 

This whole town is crawling with hired guns and feels like a demilitarized zone. I should be able to do a little more digging however, because there are a number of international tourists in the area, who have come to poke around. Maybe some of them are willing to share a scoop.

The camp has become somewhat of an attraction, although the 20ft tall fence surrounding the place is covered in Kapoor studios posters and the only thing you can see from this distance is the ominous pitch-black mass of tower on towers that jut up over the fence into the skyline. It is hard to tell how many of them are packed in there together because the outlines of the buildings just blend together into a giant void.  It’s a weird sight, my peoples. Folks on the street are talking about how even the animals have been steering clear of the valley. All the media around this Vantablack stuff doesn’t do the creep factor of its darkness justice. 

I hear the installation is to begin at sundown. I will try to poke around a little more and get back to you with my findings.

x<3x Free

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Reference Research

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Excerpt from The Lesser Key of Solomon, [date unknown] by Aleister Crowley page 79:

YE GRETER CURSE.

Hearken to me, O ye Heavens! O thou spirit N._______ because thou art the disobedient one, wicked and appearest not, speaking the secrets of truth according to, living breath; I, exalted in the power of Adoni, the All powerful, the center of the circle, most powerful God who liveth, whose end cannot be, Iehevohe Tetragammaton, only creator of heaven, earth, and that dwelling of darkness, all that is in their palaces; who disposeth in secret wisdom of all things in darkness and light: Curse thee and cast thee down. Destroy thy seat, thy joy, thy power, I bind thee in the depths of Abaddon, to remain until the day of judgement, whose end cannot be.

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Correspondence

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Letter sent to the parents of Akhem Abadi postmarked 12/03/2016:

Mr. and Mrs. Abadi,

I once dared asked the question “What is the point of being a reasonable artist?” Today, under a slight distress, I find myself wishing I had a bit more reason upon which to rest these most serious circumstances.  Akhem has been a fine young man engaged in life with the ambitious heart of an adventurous dreamer. I interviewed and selected each of my nearly three hundred participants personally, and I will remember always Ahkem’s dashing chin and sparkling disposition. Yet no amount of fond remembrance can banish the mystifying uncertainty of these present circumstances.

It has been over one hundred and seventy-eight hours since we have last had contact with Ahkem, or any of the other participants for that matter. Due to the current legal investigation of this mass disappearance, I am not at liberty to reveal the exact nature of the participatory art installation in which your son has partaken. I can tell you that responsibility for this unsettling circumstance rests squarely upon my shoulders, although not one of the world’s top physicists, philosophers or religious scholars that I have consulted for my research, had predicted this as a possible outcome to my exceedingly ambitious thought-experiment. 

Two hundred and eighty-eight participants entered my project Araphel seven days ago with enough food and water to comfortably sustain them this last week. The nature of the Project, and the highly-specialized proprietary Vantablack™ uniforms worn by the participants prior to entry, has made locating anything within the Araphel quite difficult, but you should know that your son did enter the installation willingly, of able mind and body, and, as of yet, neither I nor any of these criminal forensic scientists can fathom any reason why he, or any of the other participants have yet to exit the site.

I am certain that there is some perfectly logical and reasonable explanation for why your son, and the others, have been delayed in completing the installation, and I am sure you and he will have a hearty chuckle about all of this upon being reunited. Until then, know that I, and Sinai’s finest, are hard at work attempting to dig to the root of this mystery and we will keep you informed of any further developments. In the meantime, please accept this gift, the promised payment Akhem was scheduled to receive, knowing that it will soon be followed with good news as to the whereabouts of your dearest son.

My apologies causing such alarmingly unnecessary concern,

Anish Kapoor.