Black holes form when matter becomes so dense that space-time itself reshapes, creating a gravitational void where time stretches and nearly stops. While the fabric of space warps around it, this place will grow in mass, consuming matter, until it reaches a state of fullness. Then, it will emit heat: information will slowly escape. Finally, it evaporates and becomes part of the universe as fundamental particles, ready to take new forms. The installation tf ∼M/γ (or: t sub f is approximately Mass over gamma) is a portrait of an evaporating black hole, and a commentary on death and time. By using open-sourced data from interstellar missions (See citation and credit),  Petersen constructs a site-specific universe, asking ‘What is death, when nothing is ever truly annihilated?’ by following the birth and evaporation of a black hole. 

 

Each animation is defined by data achieved by creating a simulation of a black hole. By using semi-classical scientific models, the artist coded a script which allowed her to create an actual simulation of the birth and evaporation of a black hole. Setting the parameters to the following: birth mass 3,2 kg and peak mass 57 kg, she appropriates her own mass (from birth to current mass), creating a black hole simulation appropriating her own life cycle. Then, using the simulated data (mass, time and evaporation in radiation), she creates animations visualising said data. 

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Following can be found in the installation and short film: APM 08279+5255, Centaurus A,  M51, M58, M87, M104, M106, NGC 4945, NGC 5033, Sgr A*

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. Visuals courtesy of CDS, Aladin Sky Atlas (Strasbourg Observatory) - Visuals has been edited and changed by Natascha Christina Petersen

. Audio courtesy of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Astrophysical general relativity at MIT, Research in the group of Professor Scott A. Hughes - specifically UROP alumna Pei-Lan Hsu, using code written by Hughes, as well as the Voyager Project: Donald A. Gurnett - Plasma Wave Spectrometer Principal Investigator, archiving at The University of Iowa supported by L. Granroth, C. Piker. Java software was developed by J. Faden and E. West, with support from the Planetary Plasma Interactions Node of the Planetary Data System. Assistance by S. Joy and J. Mafi of the University of California, Los Angeles, and by S. Adams of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.222wasz - Audio has been edited and changed by Natascha Christina Petersen and Gabriel Strobel. 

. Installation footage by Pedro S. Kuster

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Special thanks to Bo Elo Petersen & Katia Rosanna Petersen, Pedro S. Kuster & Eric Berg.