Bad

Steina

1979, 2:14 min, color, sound

Bad is a technical exploration of several commands in the Vasulkas' Buffer Oriented Digital Device, which controls digital imaging functions such as up/down and right/left movement, as well as the stretching and squeezing of the image. Steina uses her own face as visual material, rhythmically dismantling and reconstructing her self-image.

Flux

Steina

1977, 8 min, color, sound

Produced from source material gathered in Iceland in 1976, Flux uses the flow of water and video noise as the basis for a study of multi-directional movement within switched frames or slow-scanned noise fields. Steina works with recorded images and video tools — a field flip/flop switcher and a...

Orbital Obsessions

Steina

1975-77; revised 1988, 24:25 min, b&w, sound

Orbital Obsessions includes excerpts from Signifying Nothing (1975), Sound and Fury (1975), Switch! Monitor! Drift! (1976) and Snowed Tapes (1977). In these pieces, Steina focuses on time, space, and movement, and the means by which the mechanical can inform and engage with electronic media....

Violin Power

Steina

1970-78, 10:04 min, b&w, sound

Steina terms this procedural work "a demo tape on how to play video on the violin." Her background as a violinist and her evolution from musician to visual artist is referenced through an analogy of video camera to musical instrument. Steina is first seen in footage from the early 1970s, playing...