Displaced Anger
They say, "at the end of anger is truth, if you manage to find your way."
again & again, I tear through the experience.
my mind a labyrinth of chaos
Page by page, anger spills across the surface like blood
from an opened wound. from war. from death.
I sit. Consumed. Exposed.
The blood of my emotions smeared across 1,000 pages
Wait…
Breathe.
Relax the face.
"Did you find your truth?" They ask.
& I tell them, "I found everything."
Collection Framework
Displaced Anger, by the artist Dr. Benton Banner, is a collection that features the traditional form of action painting or gestural expression. Pen, marker, and crayon were used on drawing paper during a period of state-anger-out expression. Fifty compositions were selected, photographed, and generatively processed using layered displacement maps and ntent.art's proprietary generative video technology. Thirty-one total outputs were created.
This project is an ode to the New York School of art and the action-based expression of gestural creation within the philosophy of abstract expressionism, with special recognition for the artists Joan Mitchell and Cy Twombly.
Anger Expressed
Anger is defined by James R. Averill as “A conflictive emotion that, on the biological level, is related to aggressive systems, and even more important, to the capacities for cooperative social living, symbolization, and reflective self-awareness; that on the psychological level is aimed at the correction of some appraised wrong; and that, on the sociocultural level, functions to uphold accepted standards of conduct.” (Averill 1982: 317)
Within that definition of anger, there is an important distinction between State Anger and Trait Anger. “State Anger is a transitory emotional episode, whereas Trait Anger pertains to a relatively stable pattern of personality attributes akin to hostility, as defined by Charles D. Spielberger in Assessment of Anger: The State-Trait Anger Scale 1983.
Additionally, within the clinical discourse on anger, we find a common dichotomy, anger-in versus anger-out. Again defined by Spielberger in The Experience, Expression, and Control of Anger 1988, “anger-in refers to the suppression of angry feelings whereas anger-out is aggressive behavior motivated by angry feelings. However, the outward expression of anger need not be aggressive, and verbal communication of anger also counts as anger-out. On the other hand, anger-in would entail neither aggression nor communication.” (Fernandez 2008).
In The Angry Personality: A Representation on Six Dimensions of Anger Expression, Ephrem Fernandez proposes “that there are six main dimensions in the expression of anger, and each of these dimensions is anchored by a pair of distinct markers. As shown in Table 19.1, the first dimension is the ‘direction of anger which can vary between reflection and deflection.
Dimension II is labeled ‘locus of anger, which can range from internal to external; the corresponding expression styles are internalization and externalization.
Dimension III refers to ‘anger reaction, which is bounded by resistance at one end and retaliation at the other end.
Dimension IV refers to the ‘modality of anger, which can be verbal at one end and physical at the other.
The fifth dimension relates to ‘impulsivity,’ which varies between controlled and uncontrolled.
Finally, the sixth dimension is the ‘objective of anger’ which can be restorative at one extreme and punitive at the other.” (Fernandez 2008: 407)
Through the definition of anger, its forms, expressions, and dimensions, it is understood that there are both constructive and destructive forms of anger expression. Destructive anger is expressed in unhealthy ways that can cause harm. In contrast, constructive anger is expressed in healthy ways that can result in healing. The latter explanation is defined in the transactional model of anger by Mark H. Butler.
"(anger) By evolutionary design, physical, self-concept, or attachment threats all similarly trigger diffuse physiological arousal, psychologically experienced as anger-emotion. Anger is first a signaling and motivational system. Anger is then formed to affirming, productive use or malformed to destructive ends.”
Understanding anger as a response system and having the necessary knowledge to navigate anger expression constructively is a powerful social tool in preventing violence and other destructive anger expressions. Some include verbal or physical abuse towards others (as seen in domestic abuse cases), deliberate self-harm, and/or substance abuse rampant in contemporary society. (World Report on Violence and Health, WHO 2002)
Gestural Expression
Gestural or Gesturalism is a term used to describe a method of fine art characterized by energetic, expressive strokes deliberately emphasizing the sweep of the artist’s arm, hand, or device. [1] [2] “Expressionism refers to art in which the image of reality is distorted to make it expressive of the artist’s inner feelings or ideas.” [3] [4] Often synonyms with the term “action painting,” gesturalism applied to artists in the abstract expressionist movement from the 1940s to 1960s, whose approach to painting emphasized the physical act of painting as an essential part of the finished work where the strokes express the artist's emotions as a reflection of their feelings in everyday life drawing attention to both the finished work and the process of creation.
“The term originally came into use to describe the painting of the abstract expressionist artists Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Hans Hofmann, and others (also referred to as action painters). The idea was that the artist would physically act out their inner impulses and that something of their emotion or state of mind would be read by the viewer in the resulting paint marks. De Kooning wrote: ‘I paint this way because I can keep putting more and more things into it – drama, anger, pain, love – through your eyes it again becomes an emotion or an idea.’” [Tate]
Process: Gesture Drawings, Digitization & Generative Output
1.Gesture Drawings performed in a state of constructive anger expression.
2.Photos were taken of each composition.
3.Digital photos imported and composited in video post production software.
4.Thirteen layers of randomized displacement motion were used to digitally express the emotion of anger.
Each piece is a looping 15 second video of 24 frames per second, containing 360 unique still frames.
5.Generative Output
Ntent.art’s proprietary generative video platform ntent.io was used to randomly scale variable combinations of the different gestural drawing composites.
Exhibition Guidelines
Displaced anger can be exhibited in either of two formats: print or digital display. Below are the outlined acceptable requirements for the exhibition of both formats. Pieces should always be displayed in a vertical format unless otherwise noted below.
Minimum Display Dimensions 274.3cm : 487.7cm at 9:16 aspect ratio
Digital Display Requirements
a. Full-color P1, P2, or P3 LED panel wall meeting the minimum display dimensions.
b. A required viewing distance restriction is based on Pixel Pitch’s optimal viewing distance and total available exhibition space 2x that of the optimal viewing distance. The optimal viewing distance is typically 2-3 times the pixel pitch number in meters.
- P1 = 2-3 Meters
- P2 = 4-6 Meters
- P3 = 6-9 Meters
c. Displaced Anger should be exhibited in pairs, two displays per wall, centered, half a width of separation between pieces. This format represents the two forms (trait anger and state anger) and expressions (anger-in and anger-out) to be contemplated by the audience while viewing.
Ex. an exhibition space with two walls requires four Displaced Anger pieces total, with two displays on each wall. With P1 displays, a viewing distance restriction of 2-3 meters from each display and a minimum total exhibition space of 4-6 square meters.
d. Displaced Anger should be displayed solo and not share a wall with any other art.
e. Horizontal Display: 16:9 aspect ratio acceptable only for display sizes at or above 975.4cm : 548.6cm
f. Display Stretch Max 2.5% from full resolution.
Physical Display Requirements
a. Full color, large format printing at 900DPI at the minimum display dimensions
b. Printed on recycled materials using non-toxic inks with a semi-gloss finish
c. Printed Stills from Displaced Anger should be exhibited in collections of four or more with 12-24 centimeters separating pieces.
d. Displaced Anger should be displayed solo and not share a wall with any other art.
