In the last section of Picture Theory W.J.T. Mitchell asks some interesting questions:

What is the role of art and imagemaking in a public sphere that is mainly constituted by forms of mass spectacle and the mediatization of experience --the world as a theme park...What forms of resistance are likely to be efficacious in an era when traditional oppositions (avantgarde versus mass culture, art versus kitsch, private versus public ) no longer seem to cultural or political leverage.

One general answer is to create alternative creative public spheres or spaces to those of the dominant cultural institutions (art galleries, museums) that are becoming social spaces and to the mass media (television on public screens, billboards). This is the position of Not Quite Art, which advances the argument that ‘memory art institutions’ exist in a reality where they are no longer the sole arbiters of collective memory; nor are they necessarily well placed to collect the burgeoning diversity of contemporary digital culture and cultural expressions of a DIY culture.

Traditionally this was represented in terms of a ‘mainstream’ and an ‘underground’, but this duality has been laid to rest by networked culture with the internet and user generated content. And the memory institutions are changing as they go online.