I started sketching out some ideas. Black holes have really cool properties like gravitational lensing and jets of electromagnetic particles that had potential for some really cool lighting inspiration. However, I have limited experience with fabrication, and a lot of these ideas involved creating spherical forms. Since I was looking to use wood as a medium, there wasn't a lot I could do since I have barely any woodworking experience. 

So, I settled for my lamp to take the form of a box with an illuminated ring that would mimic a black hole's accretion disc -- a ring of eviscerated matter falling inward into the black hole that is emitting massive amounts of light and energy up due to the ridiculous tidal forces.