Inside media: Shifts in spectatorship through the ICA’s videotheque and cinematheque

This article explores shifts in spectatorship when London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) transformed their existing cinema into a cinematheque (April 1981) and videotheque (January 1982). This space introduced a new model of interactive viewing and memory on demand that built on cybernetic systems and television broadcasting, whilst bringing together the cinema and the gallery. As described at the time ‘[i]n the midst of growing despair and austerity’ of the Thatcherite era, the ‘slick product’ of 1980s videos offered a way for counterculture to move into the mainstream of contemporary arts. Despite this, its history has been largely ignored by both exhibition studies and moving images histories. This article hopes to address this gap by considering dynamic spectatorship, programming and medial transferral through archival material at the ICA and Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.