Loss Velocity
Embedded Stereo speakers, CD Player, Amplifier.
Various dimensions
2009
1 minute clip stereo recording
In 1969, Barry Le Va had presented ‘Velocity Piece’, a work comprising 2 speakers installed at either end of the gallery, and from which emanated the sound of Le Va’s footsteps and his body impacted against the wall, all for the duration of 1 hour and 49 minutes. A year earlier, Bruce Nauman performed ‘Bouncing Two Balls Between the Floor and Ceiling with Changing Rhythms’. Nauman had bounced two balls in the centre of a marked squared on his studio floor, throwing them as forcefully as he could while trying to maintain a constant rhythm as the balls and the recorded image would ricochet unpredictably and out of sync.
Adam Knight’s Loss Velocity derives from a pre-recorded performance where the artist, governed by a set of self-imposed rules, had bounced a ball between the floor and ceiling of 7.9 Cubic Metres cube for the duration of 1 hour and 49 minutes. The corresponding audio produced was recorded through two separate sound devices, subsequently collapsed into a stereo channel and replayed through two speakers embedded within the gallery.
excerpt from Eliza Tan's interpretative text