Raindance Foundation (RainDance Corporation) was founded in October 1969 by

Frank Gillette Frank Gillette (born in 1941) is an American video and installation artist. Interested in the empirical observation of natural phenomena, his early work integrated the viewer's image with prerecorded information. He has been described as a "pion ...

Paul Ryan Paul Davis Ryan (born January 29, 1970) is an American former politician who served as the List of Speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 54th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019. A member o ...

Michael Shamberg Michael Shamberg (born 1945?) is an American film producer and former Time–Life correspondent. Life and career His credits include ''Erin Brockovich'', ''A Fish Called Wanda'', '' Garden State'', ''Gattaca'', ''Pulp Fiction'' and '' The Big ...

, Louis Jaffe, and Marco Vassi. Raindance was a self-described "alternate culture think-tank" that embraced video as an alternative form of cultural communication. The name "RainDance Corporation" was an ironic reference to the mainstream organization Rand Corporation. Influenced by the communications theories of

Marshall McLuhan Herbert Marshall McLuhan (July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media theory. He studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge. He began his ...

and

Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more t ...

, the collective produced a data bank of tapes and writings that explored the relation of

cybernetics Cybernetics is a wide-ranging field concerned with circular causality, such as feedback, in regulatory and purposive systems. Cybernetics is named after an example of circular causal feedback, that of steering a ship, where the helmsperson m ...

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

, and

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

. From 1970 to 1974, Raindance published the seminal video journal ''

Radical Software ''Radical Software'' was an early journal on the use of video as an artistic and political medium, started in 1970 in New York City. At the time, the term ''radical software'' referred to the content of information rather than to a computer progra ...

'' (initially edited by

Beryl Korot Beryl Korot (born September 17, 1945) is an American video artist. Biography Beryl Korot has pioneered the field of video art since the early 1970s. She was co-editor of ''Radical Software'' (1970), the first publication to discuss the possibiliti ...

and

Phyllis Gershuny Phyllis is a feminine given name which may refer to: People * Phyllis Bartholomew (1914–2002), English long jumper * Phyllis Drummond Bethune (née Sharpe, 1899–1982), New Zealand artist * Phyllis Calvert (1915–2002), British actress * P ...

), which provided a network of communications for the emerging alternative video movement with a circulation of 5,000. In 1971, Dean and Dudley Evenson joined the Raindance Foundation and taught video workshops through the Metropolitan Museum of Art under a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.

Dean Evenson Dean Evenson is a new-age musician, composer, producer and videographer. His hometown is Staten Island, New York. He has a master's degree in Molecular Biology. He worked in Manhattan as a recording engineer for Regent Sound with many Atlantic rec ...

was instrumental in hooking up the first half inch video transmission through New York City's Sterling Manhattan Cable, thus paving the way for Public Access Television. Dudley Evenson co-edited Issue #5 of Radical Software with Michael Shamberg. In 1971, Shamberg wrote ''Guerrilla Television'', a summary of the group's principles and a blueprint for the decentralization of television. ara Greenwald: The Process is in the Streets. Challenging Media America. S. 168-179. In: MacPhee and Reuland (eds.).Realizing the Impossible. Art Against Authority. Oakland, Edinburgh 2007. In 1976, Raindance members

Ira Schneider Ira Schneider (1939 – August 17, 2022)Happe, Uli (2004). Ira Schneider: If Something Interested Me I Filmed It'. YouTube. was an American video artist. He has been living and working in Berlin since 1993 until his return to the US in 2021. __TOC ...

and

edited ''Video Art: An Anthology'', one of the first readers on

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...

. The original Raindance collective dispersed in the mid-1970s. The nonprofit Raindance Foundation continued and in the 1980s produced the first comprehensive TV series on video art called "Night Light TV" which showcased video works by William Wegman,

Russ Johnson William Russell Johnson (born February 22, 1973) is a former Major League Baseball infielder. He prepped at Denham Springs High School then went to Louisiana State University. He was drafted in the first round of the 1994 Major League Baseball ...

(of Taly and Russ Johnson),

Joan Jonas Joan Jonas (born July 13, 1936) is an American visual artist and a pioneer of video and performance art, and one of the most important artists to emerge in the late 1960s and early 1970s.Juan Downey Juan Downey (May 11, 1940 – June 9, 1993) was a Chilean artist who was a pioneer in the fields of video art and interactive art. Early life and education Downey was born in Santiago, Chile. His father, David Downey V., was a distinguished ar ...

, John Sturgeon, and Willoughby Sharp. Raindance also administered

The Standby Program The Standby Program is a non-profit, video post-production service organization in New York City. Since 1983, Standby has provided editorial services to independent film and video producers on a wide range of projects, including documentaries, video ...

at Matrix, bringing video editing to artists in the 1980s and 1990s.

Notes

References

* ''Video Art an Anthology'' edited by

and

(New York and London 1976 , paperback: ). * Guerrilla Television'' by

and Raindance Corporation (1971 Holt Rinehart and Winstin, New York, Chicago, San Francisco , and paperback {{ISBN, 0-03-086735-5).

External links

RADICAL SOFTWARE, A Brief History of RainDance
by Davidson Gigliotti (2003).
Raindance Corporation
in th
Video Data Bank
The 20th Anniversary of the Raindance Foundation was celebrated in 1990 with a retrospective at Kitchen in New York City. Video art