Radical Software Vol 1, No 5

New York: Gordon & Breach, 1972. First Edition. Original Wraps. Very Good in Wraps. First Edition. Original Wraps. A handsome copy of Issue Five of the journal Radical Software, dedicated to "emerging trends in video, television and early computing," running for 11 issues over two volumes. The last issue of volume one and the first to be published in a true magazine format (unlike the newsprint of the prior four installments), Issue Five was published as the Raindance Foundation, the "spiritual and legal entity" behind Radical Software, was splitting apart, its members moving to upstate New York and California. The Raindance Foundation came together in 1969 inspired by the possibilities of portable video, seeking to create media "software" that could serve as a "fulltime alternative to television in America". An anarchic and technooptimist approach to new media, The Raindance Foundation partly supported itself and its members video work through sales of Radical Software. This issue includes examinations of telemedicine, video education and the highly engaging "From Crucifixion to Cybernetic Acupuncture," by Paul Ryan which states, "videotape... allows one to think of [the] self not as a center on a private axis, but as part of a trial and error nexus of shifting information pathways.
It also includes instructions and schematics for camera modifications, notes on neuroscience, artwork by visionary artist Paul Lafolley, and early computer graphics from Manfred Mohr. Minor shelf/edgewear, light toning to spine, else tight, bright, and unmarred. Glossy pictorial wraps. 4to. 120pp. Illus. (b/w plates).