What is a public intellectual? Is it the sort of opinionated, celebrity soundbiter who does the rounds from Newsnight to Have I Got News For You, to the comments page of The Guardian? Or is it a crusty "expert", who only ventures out of his academic hole to gratefully accept an invitation to an Oxbridge debate. What's an intellectual anyway? We never much liked the word in this country; it seems to run counter to our nation's proudly self-effacing character, not to mention our postmodern love of populist Big Brother-style entertainment. But since Bush's victory has been blamed on philistines who don't ask enough questions, let alone actually read books, wouldn't we do well to sit up and listen to those whose ideas just might make a difference to our way of seeing the world? Or should we not expect intellectuals to have a social function? A three-way, likely to be heated debate between Geof Mulgan, founder of the think-tank Demos and former Head of Policy in No.10 Downing Street; Frank Furedi, founder of the Revolutionary Communist Party and leading member of its various incarnations (Living Marxism, LM...); and David Goodhart, editor of Prospect magazine. And if all that thinking makes you thirsty, the ICA has a great bar...

Whizzing arrows symbolising the transition from pubescence to womanhood, monsoon-drenched Indonesians hanging out on street corners -- a Fiona Tan work is an opportunity to savour social mores from the safety of your armchair. The Netherlands-based video artist is fond of putting a spoke in life's ever-frenzied wheel, using recycled archive footage to enable you to gawp in ways sure to label you "a bit odd" in most circles. Tan will shed further light on this wonderfully voyeuristic approach to ethnography at the Tate's Time Zones: Recent Film and Video. The show's central theme is culture and the passage of time, and it features work by a ten-strong coterie of artists including Tan, Wolfgang Staehle, Francis Alys and Bojan Sarcevic. Stand by for a rollicking exploration of identity and migration, and find out how viewing such time-bound archive footage through a contemporary lens results in a bagful of intriguing conundrums.

NB: on Wed 17/11 at Tate Britain catch Turner Prize nominees Langlands & Bell (The House of Osama Bin Laden) speaking to Guardian scribe Jonathan Glancey.

Ditching the Bling! and getting back to hip-hop grassroots is the dedbeat motto, and tonight's MTV-free session at the Scala shows that diamonds aren't necessarily a rapper's best friend. Bringing together a host of the top independent hip-hop acts currently doing the rounds, Word! is all about individuality, independence, and we guess doing interesting things with lyrics too. Thursday night's alternative masterclass is a five-strong label showcase featuring sets from the likes of original rap royalty Prince Po (Lex Records), of early '90s Organized Konfusion fame; the inimitable, leftfield maverick Beans (Warp); writer/producer Mike Ladd (K7 Records), who has collaborated with Cannibal Ox, Roots Manuva, and is at the centre of NYC's progressive scene; Rob Sonic (new signing to Def Jux Records), the man behind the soulful Telicatessen; and finally, LA-oriented, Big Dada honcho Busdriver (Big Dada Records). Here endeth the theory; practical class starts 9pm Thursday.

Described as "Herbie Hancock's 'Rockit' being laid into by skinheads", Jimmy Edgar's current musical offerings have veered away from the precise hip-hop structures and dense minimalism found on his first Warp release -- Access Rhythm -- and his earlier Merck releases. Sounding like an electrofied Prince jamming with Detroit's Drexciya, his new mini-album, Bounce, Make, Model displays a unique fusion of futurist R 'n' B stylings and dancefloor destroying production. For his current tour his stage-set and visual show have been completely reworked to incorporate some special new additions (Edgar will perform both a live and DJ set), and promises a varied mix of mid-'80s electro, funk, Chicago jack trax and new wave to early Aphex and Belgian techno with possibly a few of his own death metal tracks thrown in too. In support after his legendary appearance at Plastic People last year, techno don Surgeon will be performing a specially prepared Ableton live set featuring his renowned remakes of classic Kraftwerk, Aphex Twin, Autechre and Whitehouse tracks alongside fresh material from the newest British Murder Boys split project with collaborator Regis. With the ever-present Warp DJs also on hand, it should be a very special night of aural assault.

NB: tickets now available from Smallfish Records (329 Old St., EC1) and Warpmart.

David Shrigley's work has a caustic view of life, except it is presented in such an innocent and appealing way that most cannot fail to fall in love with his world, for all its faults. Will Self notes in his introduction to Shrigley's 1998 book Why We Got the Sack from The Museum that the artist pulls the viewer/reader into his world-view completely. He insists he is a "fine artist", but his drawings take the appearance of middlebrow newspaper cartoons. His exhibitions tend to be in upmarket private galleries, but his paperback books cost a mere couple of quid. He shuns publicity (refusing to appear on the the Channel Four's Art Show, which was dedicated to him), all of which manifest in the disquieting image of a man dedicated to highlighting the previously unnoted weird terribleness of pigeons without names, demonic Easter bunnies and the revelation that hell is a just off the motorway. On Friday there is a rare chance to meet the man himself as he signs copies of his latest publication.

NB: while at the Photographers' Gallery, be sure to catch Pierre Bourdieu's photographs (till 28/11).

Radio On, a dark, endless non-narrative of a man searching for the answers to his brother's death, provides a haunting image of late '70s Britain. Rejecting colour, it stresses the visual climate of a country on the brink of bleak Thatcherism. The film's hero, Robert B (David Beames), is an obvious outsider in a British landscape away from London. While travelling, he encounters the figures of the familiar yet desolate and alien landscape he finds himself in, offering the remnants of past and present culture on the edge of unknown change. As with his novel, Robinson (1993), and his more recent work with Iain Sinclair, Radio On highlights Chris Petit's own experience as an alien in this country and some may say, the film industry itself. The son of an Army Officer, Petit experienced an unsettled childhood, forming a unique perspective on British culture, and creating a visual language reminiscent of Bill Brandt's photography. Radio On has been described as "psychological freefall", a movie influenced by New German Cinema that contains the visual critique and realism of Robert Frank, while not excluding his own brand of thriller.

NB: Radio On screens on Fri 19/11, Fri 10/12 and Fri 17/12. In addition, catch some of Petit's short films at the Tate on Sat 27/11.

In the heart of an often hectic city, some supinity is offered by Susanna & the Magical Orchestra. The band are promoting their current release, Lists of Lights and Buoys, coinciding snugly with the London Jazz Festival. This album (from Norwegian label Rune Grammofon) has received a smorgasbord of favourable reviews over the past few months, so this is truly a rare chance to match such words with aural emotions. SMO's detached and soothing sounds are gently bound together by the vocals of Susanna Wallumrod, melding the sensitive side of Sinead O'Connor with the minimal yet intricate production of down-tempo Bjork-esque instrumentals. The end product nestles itself neatly at the opposite end of the temporal spectrum from the jazz drum 'n' bass excursions of other band members Morten Qvenild and Andreas Mjos; although similarities shine through melodically in the use of glocks and electric pianos. The group is also unafraid to perform cover versions on their debut album, if nothing but to demonstrate how the remoulding of old classics creates a brand new piece. This event promises a soothing wind down for the weekend.

"Ach, it's just NOISE...", said mum as the latest Whitehouse release scraped through her brain. Well, maybe it's not. Following last year's programme -- the second in a series of all-day events taking a more academic look at "noise" -- aims to examine the contention, "Noise is an unmapped continent in comparison with which everything we recognise as music remains a parochial backwater". Sound performances come from American ex-pat genre-b(l)ending, hip-hop, avant-garde Arabic Vocal; diasporic breakcore mashing DJ /rupture, Cheap Machines; and Safe. A varied programme of papers and talks are presented by William Bennett -- founder of extreme electronic music pioneers Whitehouse; Achim Wollscheid -- media artist and founding member of Selektion, an organisation for the production and distribution of information systems; Steve Goodman -- philosophy and music lecturer, member of CCRU and gut-busting grime artist, Kode9. So, is it just noise?

NB: for some more sonic excursions make sure you stop by the Horse Hospital after this event for Construction Sonor (6pm - 1am). Catch DJ /rupture along with Supersoul & MC Stress (Metatronix) and Ove-Naxx on Sun 21/11 at 93 Feet East.

Every now and again in 400 years of Shakespeare studies, the old "how good was he really" debate kicks off. Sometimes it's the crack-pots attributing his work variously to Francis Bacon, Queen Elizabeth or little green men. In the late '80s, Colonel Gadhafi got in on the act and claimed the bard of Avon was an Arab called Sheikh Xabir. On other occasions there's a more reasoned debate. Wittgenstein was famously un-aroused by Willy, and being an introspective philosophical sort of a chap, he tried to uncover the reason behind the almost unequivocal greatness bestowed on this obscure glovemaker's son from Warwickshire. Ludwig reckons it comes down to Shakespeare's status as a creator of language. Like Bob Dylan in our own century, Shakespeare's peculiar poetry is forged from broken rules and an anarchic turn of phrase. Or perhaps it's like Keats said, great poetry is "physician to all men". The Forum for European Philosophy's symposium at the LSE is a great way of staying out of the pub on a Saturday so ye may take physic. And if you're looking for the ideal heckle, this should do the job: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

NB: the symposium takes place in the Old Theatre at LSE.

We are teaming up with the live experimental events cell [no.signal] that is presenting a live version of the Construction Sonor project, a sonic journey into the tubes and shafts of the Gotthard and Lotschberg in Switzerland. This double CD, commissioned by Pro Helvetia, gathers raw sound materials recorded by Bernd Schurer from the tunnel construction (CD1) and a collection of compositions by artists' using those field recordings as a source (CD2).

Those invited on this journey include the great laptop star Christian Fennesz, Berliner Monolake, French improv player ErikM, and Italian cellist Luigi Archetti. On this occasion -- in collaboration with the Swiss Cultural Institute Pro-Helvetia -- the evening will host an exclusive all Swiss line-up at the Horse Hospital -- an 18th-century former equine sanatorium defined as the "real home of the London Avant-Garde". Both co-owners of Domizil, the Swiss experimental label, Bernd Schurer and Marcus Maeder will be working on processed field recordings. The installation and sound artist Steinbuchel will be exhibiting his gentle drone/minimal laptop soundscapes to be followed by one of the most important figures of improvised music, Gunter Mueller, who will be doing his live objects-based electronics (two days after his collaboration with Canadian turntablist Martin Tetreault and violin/electronics player Carlos Zingaro at Atlantic Wave). The evening will also host continuous multi-screening video/film projections by (again Swiss) artist Ursula Palla and various short films of the tunnel construction. An interesting sonic (and culinary) journey...

Programme
6pm
Gallerie 57/34.6 km and Construction Sonor projects presentation
7 - 8pm
Buffet by the Swiss Embassy in London
8:30pm
Live audio performances & film screenings
12 - 1am
Music selection

NB: on Fri 19/11 be sure to catch another great line-up with Martin Tetreault, Carlos Zingaro and local star Kaffe Matthews on board a boat in the East End. For info go to the London Improv website.

Giveaway: we have five copies of the 2CD set Construction Sonor to give away. They'll go to the five flashers who can tell us when was the last time Marcus Maeder came (discretely) to London (hint: it was during a big Swiss festival).

Philadelphia is coming to South London. Later this month, we have the Roots: surely the only band in which the drummer is the most recognisable and famous member. ?uestlove (aka Ahmir Thompson) and his almighty afro oversee proceedings and ensure the percussive element of the Roots provides a taut and funky backdrop to the adventurous sounds and piercingly articulate rap of this multi-dimensional group. Always an exhilarating live experience, the Roots are also musically proficient and their work shows a love of soul, funk and jazz. Appearing a week earlier on the hallowed boards of Brixton's premier entertainment pit is poet, singer, storyteller and entertainer supreme, Jill Scott. Amidst a glut of quality black American female singer (hello Erykah, Lauren, Alicia and Mary J Blige), Jilly from Philly stands out. The sheer poetry of her lyrics along with the lush accompanying music has made for two beautifully expansive and critically acclaimed albums. In the live context, she's a raconteur and an entertainer in the truest form. Now experience the golden touch of the Philadelphia scene for yourselves...

NB: Jill Scott and the Roots perform at the Brixton Academy on both Sat 20/11 and Sun 21/11.

From his seldom-mentioned production duties on Screamadelica to the noir drama of Sabres Of Paradise, Weatherall's never shy of new direction. Latterly, with Two Lone Swordsmen and the Rotters Golf Club, the Chairman and fellow rotter Keith Tenniswood have continued this constant reinvention. Thankfully, the correlative for each project combines spindly beats and rhythmic bass and not a little panto. Their latest project is no different. Emerging from session this summer, their latest The Double Gone Chapel might be described as "electrobilly". Tonight is something of an event as it's the first time Andy 'n' Keef have performed live since the Sabres Of Paradise. In addition, they've recruited a full band including Lung and Chris Rotter of bovver-beat tag-team Tokyo Windbag. As ever, Fabric boasts two other rooms that could easily headline. The DIY Collective host a 15th birthday knees-up whilst Craig Richards invites Akufen to show off his dice & splice sample delight.

In 1955, Robert Frank received a Guggenheim Fellowship to travel across the United States with his Leica camera and chronicle everyday life in the country with a cool journalistic eye. The resulting book -- Frank's massively culled selection of those pictures -- is titled The Americans, and is considered one of the most influential photography books to have ever been published. Interestingly --or disastrously, if you agree with some critics -- the Frank retrospective on view at the Tate Modern, covering 50 years of his career, consists of everything but the pictures from The Americans. In keeping with this, the Tate is also bringing together just about all of Frank's films, the sum total of which seems to indicate that he had almost as prolific an output as a filmmaker as he did as a photographer. While the photography has been celebrated for how it levels the bright and pretty (Jackie O) with the everyday and even ugly (e.g. ignorant Southern teenagers), the films, particularly the early ones with their Jack Kerouac and Rolling Stones associations, have an unmistakably glamorous, avant-garde side. With the film series running from now until January, you can judge and compare the output for yourself.

NB: Robert Frank: Storylines runs till 23/01/05. The Robert Frank Films programme begins on Sun 21/11 and continues with Programme 2 on Sun 28/11, Programme 3 on Sat 11/12, Programme 4 on Sun 12/12, Programme 5 on Sat 08/01/05, Programme 6 on Sat 15/01/05 and Programme 7 on Sat 22/01/05.

William Eggleston's Stranded in Canton (adj. drunk, stoned or just stuck some place you don't wanna be) is frequently described as "legendary" -- perhaps largely because, despite the fact that it was made over 30 years ago and that Eggleston is one of the most important photographers of the modern age, this will be the UK premier of the film (and for one night only at that). Those lucky enough to catch the Artprojx/Victoria Miro screening -- with Eggleston himself in attendance -- will be treated to a very different side of the man best known for works like The Red Ceiling (properly Greenwood, Mississippi). Unlike the dispassionate overtones of a classic Eggleston photograph, with its detached observer, restrained point-of-view and surface supra-normalcy, Stranded in Canton is a this-is-what-it's-really-like slice of verite from the other side of the tracks -- a wild and unscripted journey into downtown Memphis, confirming Eggleston's hellraiser reputation and showing the seedy (not to say dangerous) underbelly implied in many of his photographs. See it. You won't forget it and "geek" will never mean "nerd" to you again.

NB: Eggleston will be showing new photographic work at the Victoria Miro Gallery from 23/11 till 18/12.

It was about ten days ago that Theo Parrish played a memorable set at the Southport Weekender. The final song, a lengthy and uncompromising jazz masterpiece, finally wound proceedings down at the tardy hour of 9am, much to the chagrin of security. The set was rapturously received, as is most of the output of Mr. Parrish, a man who effortlessly combines staggeringly original and prolific productions along with a trail blazing DJ career. A defining characteristic of Parrish's DJ sets is the genuine enjoyment that he seems to derive from playing. It is always a comforting sight to see a DJ having a genuinely good time behind the decks, and Parrish bounces, smiles, sings and vibes to the sounds he plays. From rough minimalist Detroit specials, to '80s tinged electro with constant referencing to the funk and soul that underpins all of these genres... a captivating array of sounds are played. All this is punctuated by Parrish's own productions, including his now infamous series of Ugly Edits. This is a one-off Plastic People special... Kenny Dixon Junior (aka Moodymann) headlined a similar event a couple of weeks ago: this is guaranteed to be a worthy follow-up.

Don't be put off by the well-publicised fact that she was once a roommate of the dreaded Peaches. Musically, they have nothing in common. What Canadian songstress (and sometime member of the Broken Social Scene collective) Leslie Feist has to offer is just that ingenuous-yet-sophisticated synthesis of '70s top 40 (she covers the Bee Gees), French chanson (she covers Francoise Hardy), and nu-folk (she covers Ron Sexsmith) that you always wanted without realising it. It's a bonus that she does so with a deliciously sleepy voice that flutters around a tune like a butterfly flitting unpredictably around a blossom. Slip into her sublimely buoyant looking-for-a-good-man-to-settle-down-with-in-the-country number, "Mushaboom", and reader, you'll want to get yourself some overalls and marry her.

NB: buy tickets from aloud.com here.

There's nothing like a vague but salacious argument uniting sex, family and civilisation to stir up a decent debate. For this one, Intelligence2 starts with the nebulous notion of benefiting the soul, though whether the goal is a squeaky clean conscience or an unfettered, inspired essence remains to be seen. Speakers include Rod Liddle (Channel 4 filmmaker and journalist), Jack Klaff (actor, writer and critic), Howard Jacobson (novelist, critic and broadcaster) and Rowan Pelling (critic and founding editor of the Erotic Review), while Joan Bakewell (broadcaster and journalist) chairs from the middle of the bed. Somewhere between the happy lotharios and contented life companions, a part of the audience will remain unconvinced if they should go for either extreme, or if indeed they'd be happier making like players while sticking to their chosen team. (Vice versa too of course, though it's a bit of a cliche.) Is it really credible that while we develop professionally, intellectually and maybe even emotionally, the partner picked in the flush of youth will still make the grade at 60? Swans and seagulls divide at the Royal Geographical Society.

Diana Cooper and Hew Locke are a great double act, the former with her abstract drawing/painting/sculptures made from felt and the latter with his "depiction" of royalty all created out of bric-a-brac. Influenced by her own notes and doodles, Cooper, a New Yorker and abstract painter, has been creating increasingly sprawling, shambly, abstract structures that are now beginning to incorporate her own photographs. It's Abstract Expressionism meets Joseph Cornell via Frank Gehry! Here, Orange Alert, created primarily out of pieces of felt -- eat your heart out Joseph Beuys -- incorporates colour from America's terror alert coding. Of Guyanan descent, Locke has been engaging with his postcolonial roots in a cut 'n' paste kinda way. This show features a coat of arms constructed largely out of toys and generally other plastic products. The Queen and the Empire do take on a shoddy feel but then again, has the Empire not been held together with patches for the last few decades? At first this seems like two solo shows rather than a shared ideology or aesthetic, but there is an energy and sprightly humour to be found in both. This is the Drawing Room's show with the most pizzazz yet; but wait, is it drawing?! And do we care?

NB: runs till 21/11.

Hal Foster, not to be confused with the man who created Prince Valiant, is a man in the know, that is, of art rather than heroism. His edited volume, the now seminal The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture (1983) is a classic collection of the period's re-evaluation and rebellion against the Modernist hegemony. Over the years since, he has cast his eye over the objects of Modernism's products and problematised them in that classic postmodern sense. A return to the repressed, postmodernism has always countered the purity of the Modernist vision, and "subject matter", "impurity", "psychoanalysis", even Surrealism have all returned to the fold. The Princeton Professor of Art and Archaeology is in town to speak on his new book, Prosthetic Gods -- which is about Modernist art and psychoanalysis -- and give his opinion on the newly refurbished MoMA, NY and its presentation of Modernism. Facing hegemony, you could say, is heroic too.

With its permanently closed metal-shuttered entrance and monolithic, windowless gallery, the Chisenhale is a pretty unforgiving place; to counter this austerity, artists must not so much as create an exhibition as an entire environment. David Burrows recently used a carpet of sparkly sawdust to add a bit of homeliness; now, fellow trendy Brit Gary Webb, in his first solo show in a public gallery, has installed a patchwork screen of mirrors on the far wall that, disco ball-like, bounces light and warmth around the room. There are seven other sculptures here, and between them there isn't much that they can't do: one blows out air with the satisfyingly nostalgic hum of a bouncy castle machine; another has dancing lights; talking telephone-like objects, etc... It's shiny, happy, tacky stuff that, with titles like Pooing Dutchman and Deja Vu, doesn't take itself too seriously or worry about "borrowing" materials and ideas. And, a bit like the set for The Magic Roundabout, you know there must be drugs involved somewhere... Politically searching this may not be, but it certainly holds a mirror up to the extreme absurdity of our magpie consumer culture.

NB: runs till 12/12.

A frequent joke about why Californian artists fetishised the surface of their work was because you could only see New York art through art magazines, and the paper was shiny. Born in California (1943), James Turrell and his compatriot Robert Irwin were key figures in the "light and space school", a movement in which "perception" rather than the object is key to "experience" of the artwork, that is the "artwork" is a mere light conduit for experience. At Albion, Turrell is presenting a group of light pieces from his youth. Unlike his later work, the light rooms and Roden Crater, which create a condition for the experience of light, here light is the medium in which "sculpture" is created. Perhaps, slightly akin to Minimalism's sense of materiality at the time, the immateriality of light was Turrell's first steps into creating work in which the viewer truly became an eye.

James Turrell's exhibition (light and television pieces, as well as drawings from the '60s) at Albion runs through the 17/12.

To read the interview click here.

Written by a Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Northern Iowa, this unusual book has an unusual story to tell. It explains the crucial and often surprising relationship between art and camouflage throughout the 20th-century. From the American artist Abbott Thayer who preceded zoologists in explaining how some forms of animal camouflage work to the thousands of artists, architects and designers drafted into armed forces during the World Wars who worked as "camoufleurs", the author knits together a compelling historical narrative with a thorough explanation of how camouflage actually works. This academic study is made highly accessible by Behrens' use of clear diagrams and examples of artworks as well as his clever page layout in which supporting quotes and illustrations feature in a broad margin. So why do artists and designers have such an intimate understanding of camouflage? It is because the principles involved are essentially the reverse of those "unit forming factors" (as the Gestalt psychologists called them) that govern the composition of a piece of art or design. Behrens is the world authority in this field and his expertise helps the reader to see the deceptive world of camouflage more clearly.

False Colors is available in the UK via www.dpmhi.com and at the dpmhi store, 2-3 GPS, Great Pulteney St., Soho, London W1 [+44.(0)871.218.0260]. To buy a copy click here.

Giveaway: we have one copy of the book to give away. It'll go to one randomly picked Flasher who can tell us which art movement inadvertently invented camouflage.