Steina's works from the late 1970s and early 1980s are exercises in the phenomenology of vision and the redefinition of space and landscape as articulated through mechanized, optical and electronic devices.

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.