ABSTRACT
The notion of counterpublic is conceptualized in relation to play and ‘active leisure’ which inform the creative underground and heterotopian spaces. Leisure practices have traditionally concerned ‘artists’ expressing their creative ideas, with enlightened audiences attempting to understand their intention or creating their own interpretations. This active leisure has not easily transferred to mass culture which has been associated with commodity and passivity. Perceived through a Marxian lens, such creativity is in response to alienation, which is shaped by a working culture imbued with the values and effects of materialism and the work ethic, among other variables. The discourses of work, leisure and autonomy are initially situated historically in relation to capitalism and the suppression of working-class culture. Today the negative consequences of working are crystallized through the notion of a leisure deficit which has had a deleterious effect, whereby overwork has impacted on nonworking time. Hence, the counternarrative of a creative underground where alternative ideas and values can be explored in nonwork spaces.
