Raindance

Biography

Founded in 1969 by Frank Gillette, Paul Ryan, Michael Shamberg and Ira Schneider, Raindance was an influential media collective that proposed radical theories and philosophies of video as an alternative form of cultural communication. The name "Raindance" alluded to what members termed "cultural R & D" (research and development). Influenced by the communications theories of Marshall McLuhan and Buckminster Fuller, the collective produced tapes and writings that explored the relation of cybernetics, media and ecology.

From 1970 to 1974, Raindance published the seminal video journal, Radical Software, which provided a network of communications for the fledgling alternative video movement. In 1971, Shamberg published Guerilla Television, a summary of the group's principles and a blueprint for a de-centralization of television through access to public and cable programming. The original Raindance collective dispersed in the mid-1970s; the nonprofit Raindance Foundation continued into the 1990s.