Deepfield Mathew Adkins

For many years the Hubble Space Telescope has been sending back to Earth images of astronomical events that stretch further and further back into the history of the universe. deepfield is a sonic exploration of these terrae incognitae — a world of violent explosions, extreme temperatures and velocities.

The structural model for the work are the most distant stars yet discovered — Quasars (quasi-stellar-astronomical-radio-source) — discovered in 1963. A quasar is an object of stellar appearance of exceptionally high luminoisty. The spectrum of a quasar exhibits emission lines that have very high redshifts. They are the nucleus of primordial galaxies at the centre of which is a huge black hole which is continually sucking in all surrounding gas.

The quasar accretes material in the form of a spiral faster than the speed of light. This material is subject to huge pressures as it collapses passing through the event horizon into a singularity — where an infinite mass occupies an infinitessimally small space.

commissioned by Césaré, Studios de création musicale
realised May 2000 at the Césaré Studios, Reims

  • Year of composition: 2000
  • Duration of the submitted work: 12:34
  • Production: Césaré Studios, Reims

More works by Mathew Adkins