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Raindance Media Primers (1970) The Rays (1970) 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. These titles are available for exhibitions, screenings, and institutional use through Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), NY. Please visit the EAI Online Catalogue for further information about this artist and work. The EAI site offers extensive resources for curators, students, artists and educators, including: an in-depth guide to exhibiting, collecting, and preserving media art; A Kinetic History: The EAI Archives Online, a collection of essays, primary documents, and media charting EAI's 40-year history and the early years of the emergent video art scene; and expanded contextual and educational materials.