A Black Hole's Journey
The Making Of

Well...who doesn't find black holes fascinating? After our first show there were requests for another show, and black holes was mentioned several times as a possible topic! Furthermore, the core team of Audio Universe have a particular interest in black holes from their astrophysics research background! Indeed both Chris and James do research in understanding the supermassive black holes that reside at the centre of all massive galaxies. We decided that black holes would be an engaging topic for audiences. Additionally, there are lots of miss-conceptions about black holes. We wanted to help get the facts straight, and demonstrate that black holes are not as mysterious as you might think!

The show covers some challenging scientific topics, but at a level suitable for pupils aged around 10+ (and their families). However, the astronomers making the show couldn't help but to hide lots of complicated astrophysics inside the show! The sonifications are all made with real astronomical data or theoretical models (such as using Einstein's theory of general relativity)! Perhaps this was more for the fun of the astronomers behind the show than the audiences; however, it does provide scientific authenticity behind how the sonifications were produced. More about this can be found on the Science Behind The Show page. 

Everything started in December 2025 when a group of astronomers, educators, and artists got into a room and started pitching ideas of what should be included in the show, and how to present it in an engaging way. We thought about our target audiences, the key scientific concepts to include, and how to make it engaging. After pooling lots of good (and not so good) ideas, we decided to keep  the theme of the previous show, and have the audience imagine that they are on a special spacecraft an a space tour! This spacecraft is fitted with a special "sonification machine" that turns light into sound. 

We took the brave step to have a fictional character in this show; a talking black hole (interestingly this was first considered a bad idea by the group before deciding it was the best idea)! This is one part of the show which certainly isn't meant to be scientifically accurate!

We wanted to tell the story of a black hole, and how they are often miss-understood, through the "voice" of a black hole itself! We thought this was analogous to a teenager who might feel miss-understood, and often accused of doing bad things that are not true. In this case, we wanted the black hole to be able to make it very plain and clear that they don't go around sucking everything up (instead, they are simply gravitationally very attractive)!

The development of the show was thanks to a team of professional astronomers, sonification experts, a composer, and a digital artist. Importantly, several people outside of our team were involved throughout the design stages. We involved school pupils (both those with low vision and those who are fully sighted) and teachers to give feedback on the initial ideas, the draft scripts, and the first draft of the audio-visuals of the show. Most of these pupils and teachers were from Newcastle, and the Newcastle City Council Children's Vision Team. This feedback was critical in improving the script and making sure it was enjoyable and understanable by the target audiences. Alongside this feedback, we worked closely with several members of the British Association of Planetaria, who helped guide the development of the show that could be used in their venues. 

In A Black Hole's Journey, we see the return of Rachel Lambert as the voice of "Captain Lambert"; the captain of the space craft. This is the same character, and voiced by the same person, as in Tour of the Solar System. Rachel is a Qualified Teacher of Children and Young People with Vision Impairment (QTVI). Therefore, not only was she able to provide a fantastic voice for the character, she was critical in providing feedback on the script and show's design throughout the process. 

We cast the voice of the black hole character with Penny Donaldson, who is a pupil with a severe vision impairment. As well as being a great voice actor, of about the right age to protray the "miss-understood teenager", she provides an authentic voice for the accessibility goals of the show. 

Below are photographs of Penny and Rachel during our narration recording session in the school. We were not able to get access to a proper recording studio, so we built our own with some music stands and a duvet! 

The core funding for this project came from a Future Leaders Development Network Creative Fund and a Science and Technology Facilities Council Nucleus Award. Underpinning the show is the sonification software that our team have developed, which had funding from a Science and Technology Facilities Council Early Stage Research and Development Award.

Various team members who contributed were supported by other funding routes from the Royal Society and European Research Council.