There's no form of collective discrimination cooler than that of a Republic. If you are a glutton for outsiders just the very phonetics will send you clambering for whatever "blah Republic blah" make, with the confident air of the guy on the little chaps side, smiling that zeal-appeal of the alternative. Could be bananas, could be coffee, and, if you are a independent record label, a brand needing the sizzle of "cool" or some kinda interactive games type corp, then to kick off a real coup you need The Designers Republic. Founded by a bloke some in illustrator land may call God, Ian Anderson, tDR has monopolised all things edgy across the globe and is pretty greedy when it comes to awards. Anderson alongside current roster of Bax, Bailey, Fewell, Fleetwood, Ribbands and Pascoe have an archive to live for; Warp, Adidas, MTV, M&C Saatchi, Sony Music and Issey Miyake are a selection many creative directors would... er... well... just wouldn't get coz they ain't good enough. So if your client list needs improving or you are a budding young thing you should be front row for Anderson's chitty chat at D&AD lecture and forum season and pray that something rubs off on you!

If the nostalgia of Walter Benjamin had to be given an image, rather than his own backward-facing "angel of history", John Stezekar's "archive" might well do. Hot with the New Image crowd, Stezekar's work can be seen through the context of David Salle and his generation, but also that of the elder image-maestro, John Baldessari. His Third Person Archive -- a body of work commenced in the '70s -- consists, like many of the other groups on show here, of meticulously collaged, found images, and in this particular case of lone individuals in the city. Unlike Salle's "bad" handiwork, Stezaker's images veer towards the "beautiful", yet it is his intellectual peregrination that's made him a cult figure amongst artists in this country. Like a Benjaminian thought fragment, it is the clinical solitude of his images that probe our awareness of the daily barrage of received imagery. The artist will be making the case himself for his own work -- go on ask a question about Surrealism...

NB: runs till 19/12. While in the hook, catch Joan Jonas at Wilkinson, The Black Album at Interim Art, Carol Bove at Hotel and Jurgen Teller at Modern Art Inc.

East London venue The Spitz will be presenting its first festival of "new music", labelled Mid Winter festival. The two-day event will be headlined by two great bands from the American East Coast: the Boston-based, psych-multi-instrumentalist Sunburned Hand of the Man (Wed 08/12) and the New York avant-garde group Text of Light (Thu 09/12), a project that includes Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo, turntablist-artist Christian Marclay, guitarist Alan Licht and prolific drummer Tim Barnes. The first band -- a representative of the "new weird Americana" movement -- is a somehow chaotic merging of free jazz, psychotic prog/space rock, drones and avant-folk amongst other complex genres. Their various CDR self-releases are taken from live recordings, and it is indeed live that this communal, "anarchical" band has to be heard. On the same evening of the festival opening, British experimental drummer Charles Hayward -- formerly from This Heat -- will present a solo set and Sprawl's Iris Garrelfs will be adding a melodic drift before the communal music ritual. Thursday will see the New York "all star" collective playing soundtracks to the American avant-garde filmmaker Stan Brakhage's works. A mayhem of noise that can only be a delight when watching such legends of "new music" in action. Disinformation vs. Strange Attractor's live mixture of electricity and medical equipment and The Man From Uranus will be completing the line-up for this first edition!

NB: Christian Marclay will also be presenting his Sound of Christmas project at the Tate Modern (10/12 till 22/12).

With Tom Waits recently passing through our shores, it's timely that the work of minimalist composer Gavin Bryars is presented in London. As the first artist signed to Brian Eno's notorious Obscure label, he released his seminal works The Sinking of the Titanic and Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet in 1975, the latter of which Waits gave voice to in an adaptation a decade ago. "Jesus' Blood" riffs around a hissy tape recording of a tramp singing a church hymn, as the orchestra snakes its way around the melody building into a melancholic orgiastic splendour. A frequent collaborator, Bryars was founder of the infamous Portsmouth Sinfonia, a community orchestra that allowed anyone to join, whether they could play or not, and has worked with theatrical visionary Robert Wilson, film director Atom Egoyan, choreographer Merce Cunningham, and tonight presents a remix project with electronica troubadour Aphex Twin. Dissolving jazz into a luscious classical lake of harmony, Bryars is able to produce an incredibly emotional music that can enrapture with its intimacy. This evening should prove to be a tranquil sprawl in the pool.

Christian Marclay has been doing outre things to the humble record deck since the late '70s -- all in the name of art. Born in the US but raised in Switzerland, Marclay is influenced as much by Marcel Duchamp as Manhattan's downtown music scene, bringing a playful, European sensibility to a body of work that hovers at the nexus of DJ curatorship, performance art and leftfield sound collage. With a major retrospective due at the Barbican in February, Marclay's stock is currently high and his work's core concerns -- the use of repetition and montage to subvert the myths, methodologies and cliches of musical reproduction -- perhaps never more resonant. The Sounds of Christmas promises an extraordinary collection of over 1,200 Yule-themed vinyl LPs, amassed by Marclay over the past 20 years. Tinsel-bedecked offerings by everyone from Bing Crosby to the King's College Choir, via Elvis Presley, Abbott & Costello, The Lettermen and Mahalia Jackson (and way beyond...) will be racked as if in an extraordinarily monothematic -- not to mention kitsch -- record store, with video screens portraying DJs making experimental mixes from the record collection. Integral to the installation are four nights of special performances featuring cutting-edge British DJs and turntablists creating unique live mixes with nuggets from Marclay's festive cache.

NB: The Sounds of Christmas runs till 22/10. Performances on 10/12 (Christian Marclay), 11/12 (Strictly Kev of DJ Food and Paul Hood of Resonance FM), 17/12 (Matt Black of Coldcut, Ergo Phizmiz and the Bohman Brothers) and 18/12 (Janek Schaefer and People Like Us).

"I want to write a teenage symphony to God," Brian Wilson told interviewers, as he set to work writing and recording SMiLE, the follow-up to The Beach Boy's critically acclaimed 1966 album Pet Sounds. The first intimation of what this might actually sound like came with the release of the stunning single "Good Vibrations". To all the world, it looked like Brian Wilson really was about to take pop music to a whole new level. But the rest of the band wasn't so sure; Mike Love in particular hated the new songs, especially Van Dyke Parks' convoluted lyrics, which he found impossible to sing. Recording sessions became more and more fraught, Brian became increasingly paranoid, and the album was eventually abandoned. In the ensuing years, SMiLE has been accorded status as the most legendary unreleased album of all time. Then in 2003, Brian finally faced up to his demons, re-recording the whole piece and performing it live at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Beautiful Dreamer tells the story of the making of SMiLE, both past and present, and features star-studded interviews and some great archive footage, including Brain singing "Surf's Up" solo at the piano from 1966.

NB: director David Leaf will be hosting question and answer sessions after the 6:30 and 9pm screening on Fri 10/12. SMiLE screens at the ICA till 30/12.

With a bang, the Firecracker Showcase returns once more. Gunpowder, a Chinese creation, was put to better use when their explosions saw in the Chinese New Year, loud sounds and flashes of light scattering evil spirits and bad fortune. Likewise this cinematic Firecracker is aimed at dispelling our simple -- read here "poor" -- notions of Eastern cinema as being the mere domain of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, important and brilliant though they are. Talent from Hong Kong (director Johnnie To's real time kidnap flick), Singapore (as in the anti-Singaporean 15) and China (in the much hyped premiere of House of Flying Daggers) are amongst those on view. The Wong Kar-Wai double bill is the ideal prelude to his forthcoming 2046, but it's really the opportunity to catch Royston Tan, Vincent Chui, Oxide and Danny Pang at work that should draw you in. Like last year's mix of indie flicks, big budget thrillers, and sophisticated talkies (albeit in fast-paced Cantonese), this should provide a well-rounded and, hopefully, breath-taking view of that populous continent.

NB: the festival runs from 10/12 till 12/12 and will coincide with a book launch of Wallflower Press' The Cinema of Japan and Korea, an exhibition of '70s Shaw Brothers posters and their own brand-spanking new webzine!

With the work Christmas party ominously looming perhaps it's time to start thinking of getaway plans. Identify a place to go once you've extracted yourself from the boring one from Human Resources and drunk the boss' tab dry. Flee, rip off your "smart casual", apply eyeliner on, sellotape a dildo or something equally "avant-garde" to your head and go to the three floors of beautiful excess that will be the Kash Point Xmas Party at Central Station. Kash Point has survived the 2001 love-in for all things electro without becoming a pit of celebrity and hype, perhaps by being a fairly movable feast, going from West to North and taking to the Thames on occasions. The surroundings are kept fresh and so is the format, with live acts and fashion shows making the odd appearance. It's time to celebrate Christmas at a place that looks good and sounds good too.

NB: for a taster of Friday's fun the Kash Point radio show is on Resonance FM at 10:30pm on Wed 8/12.

If you are in need of scratching an electronic itch then it's well worth heading down to the Elephant to catch this bulging Erratica showcase of some exciting fresh acts of the genre. Up top we are likely to experience live performances of tracks from Dez Williams' latest EP Speaking In Tongues. Williams' previous excursions have been very much reminiscent of early-'90s electro-house, with more than a nod to the '80s/'90s backbeat instrumentals -- dark and imposing in style, with sweeping synthetic strings and cruise-control 808-beats. His current release, however, is a much more minimal, ethereal and sonically adventurous affair. Amongst other live acts, we are to be treated with the jazzier electro chill-out of Stendec (Expanding Records) and the wanton retro of The Kansas City Prophets' great analogue technique. This night promises to represent the gentle diversity of the current electronic music scene.

NB: to guarantee entry Flashers must buy a ticket in advance, bring a flyer or email tom@vinylfactory.co.uk. Tickets can be purchased from Smallfish (329 Old St., EC1) and Phonica (51 Poland St., W1).

Reacquaint yourself with the defiantly arched eyebrows and wasp-like waist of the divine Scarlett O'Hara in this lushly restored reissue of Gone With The Wind. Vivien Leigh, who won an Oscar for this role, incarnates the definitive feisty heroine, who refuses to act as society and her viewers expect, or to lie about her feelings. Based on Margaret Mitchell's classic novel, the biggest film of all time charts the tempestuous relationship of Scarlett and Rhett Butler, played smoulderingly by screen idol Clark Gable. A tale of love and loss, sexual tension and tragic mistiming, set against the flaming, violent backdrop of the American Civil War, this is the ultimate weepy epic. Titanic, eat your heart out. The film's enduring appeal lies with Scarlett, its subversive, tough female protagonist. This irresistible, arrogant survivor, utterly determined, after a traumatic war, never to be hungry again, meets her match in dominating rogue Rhett Butler, king of the laconic one-liner. A happy ending is left to the power of our imagination, but, as the indomitable Scarlett utters, tomorrow is another day...

NB: GWTW will be screening at the NFT from 05/12 till 16/12. On 11/12 it will be introduced by Rob Hummel, VP of Technology at Warner Brothers and key player in its restoration.

Saturday sees the hosting of the Haywire Christmas Party. This aptly-named bash -- the year's near-final Haywire Session, a regular electro night started a couple of years ago by legendary DJ Andrew Weatherall and his Rotters Golf Club stablemate, fellow Lone Swordsman and uber-producer Keith Tenniswood (aka Radioactive Man) -- will be taking place at a secret London. It will feature performances from Weatherall himself (presumably keen to remind us of his impeccable techno and electro turntable techniques, as also recently demonstrated on a firing Fabric compilation) alongside Tenniswood as Radioactive Man, whose unique brand of bass-heavy, psychotic machine-funk is both technically and musically accomplished enough to please the goatee-sporting electronica enthusiasts who turn up to these events in their droves to spot vintage synth sounds, and dancefloor-friendly enough to ensure that those who go to get sweaty and throw shapes leave satisfied and damp-shirted. Further support comes from Exzact, supplying tough breakbeats alongside electro-head and Battle Trax founder Bass Junkie and well-established electro and techno scene stalwarts Mat Carter and Daz Quayle. Expect head-to-head battles where beats and basslines compete for sub-frequency domination with live effects thrown on top -- Haywire doesn't even begin to cover it.

NB: for more information, you'll need to grab tickets sharp from Phonica (51 Poland St., W1), Rough Trade (16 Neals Yard, WC2) or Smallfish (329 Old St., EC1) record shops but hurry -- numbers are limited. Season's bleepings.

This is the ultimate winter warmer. Not at all like the glossy thrillers of Point Break or Big Wednesday (though John Milius cameos), Riding Giants is a documentary about surfing, specifically big wave surfing -- that "off piste", testosteronal, Aryan, X-treme sport version of riding planks on water. What surprises is not the size of the waves, nor the gorgeous sunlight to us latitude-deprived sorts, but that there are articulate, if highly enthused, surfers about. Surfing, as in the stereotype, is all about being in the moment, and surfers are revered for their "chilled" natures and laid-back lifestyles. This documentary by Dogtown and Z-boys's Stacey Peralta explains how all this Hawaiian form of relaxation became a piece of "mainstream" culture. As well as interviewing three American legends (Greg Noll, Jeff Clark and Laird Hamilton) from different eras, it provides an opportunity to beef up on your surf speak: "pipe", "vein", "break", "line-up", "swell". But this very American -- where are the Aussies?! -- big wave surfing is as much about being in AWE of nature's grandeur as well as being aware, in an instant, of one's mortality. Imagine being at the top of Everest, skiing down, and it cascades after you, several times...

There is a long history of subverting social practice in art, from the use of industrial materials and found objects, to live art's attempt to reject commodification and the abandonment of the artist's studio. While many still see the artist as an outsider, which is a little politically subversive to begin with, the production of a successful artist is never wholly conducted outside the "system", and instead she is presented with the conundrum of who to please, audience, dealer or herself? Whether art as image can be politically active is uncertain, but it always comments on a time. The topic "politics" seems rarely distant in the land of contemporary art at the moment, with a rethinking of socio-history to a virtual tour of Osama Bin Laden's house in this year's Turner Prize to an issue of frieze dedicated to the subject. Art can coax us to re-look and perhaps re-think, while the abstraction within art by nature allows meaning to be ambiguous. But while we live during an ongoing war on terror and Michael Moore is a box office smash, surely we're just more aware that all cultural life is political.

NB: advance booking is essential. Art In A Time Of Politics: A Discussion between artists Catherine Yass and Phil Collins, academic and writer Jaqcueline Rose and curator Catherine David. Chaired by writer and critic Andrew Renton in conjunction with both the Johan Grimonprez and Bettina von Zwehl exhibitions. Catherine Yass is also presenting new work shot around the wall in Israel at Alison Jacques (till 23/12).

One of the most influential groups of the emerging Canadian experimental/post-rock music scene will return to London following last week-end's appearance at ATP's The Nightmare Before Christmas, curated by Jake and Dinos Chapman. The SMZMB ensemble was started in 1999 by Godspeed You Black Emperor!'s guitarist Efrim. It reunites a string quartet (with Beckie, Jessica, Sophie and Thierry) accompanied by melodic and drifting guitar drones, piano and melancholic (yet sometimes ferocious) drums. The entire collective emanates a beautiful array of warm and enchanting atmospheric melodies. They have recently released, under their new expanded name the Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band, their stunning third album "This Is Our Punk-Rock," Thee Rusted Satellites Gather + Sing. The record goes further than previous works with the presence of an uncontrolled languorous male voice and a marvellous amateur choir. While beautiful wandering chords are still dominant, rhythmic guitar chords and controlled drums are ever present and, through the complaining voice(s), it is a profound work in line with the Canadian label's ethos. Which has done impressively well by sticking to its principles and releasing incredible music. A great occasion to see the collective perform months after their two sold out nights earlier this year at the Scala. Unmissable.

Most of you should vaguely remember the Silver Age -- of comics, that is -- a time when most of what we understand today as comic book pop culture arrived. Spiderman, Daredevil and the X-Men were all Silver Age Marvels, not to mention that philosophical surfer dude. As opposed to DC's older Supermen, the '60s anti-hero was troubled and immature, but by the mid-'80s all this was under threat, Marvel Comics working towards bankruptcy and DC becoming a small part of that Time-Warner corporation. It was then that the independent comicbook and writers like Alan Moore, Frank Miller and Neil Gaiman began taking superheros where they'd never gone before. To complement this new found "humanity" or "darkness", they sought out different artists, with more European leanings, to breathe life into their vision. Hence, when Grant Morrison decided to take Batman down that road of utter madness, Dave McKean created the dark world of Arkham Asylum. More a painter and bricoleur than your run-of-the-mill draughtsman, Chris Ware or Robert Crumb he is not. Perhaps you know his covers for Gaiman's Sandman or the illustrated comic for the Stones' Voodoo Lounge. Here the artist and filmmaker will speak on his work.

Catch director Ken Loach in conversation about his deeply emotional docu-drama Ladybird Ladybird. This unsettling film draws on the real-life events surrounding one mother's struggle to keep her family together despite the interference of the State and her own troubled past. Violent and tumultuous relationships dominate this stark British film classic, and disarming performances by Crissy Rock and Vladimir Vega make it one of the most prominent and unsettling depictions of domestic violence and family misfortune in recent memory -- not entirely out of character for Ken Loach, whose more recent endeavours include Sweet Sixteen and Ae Fond Kiss... Loach's lengthy and celebrated career has spanned across international borders, creating a series of challenging dramas that continue to push the envelope in terms of what they demand from their audience. Multi-national and multilingual, Loach's films have a unique capacity to cut right to the bone, exposing the raw emotion and common circumstance that transcends cultural boundaries. This is an event held in conjunction with the Family Rights Group celebration of 30 years of effort to aid mothers and children in need around the UK.

In one of Zaha Hadid's most famous projects, the Car Park and Terminus in Strasbourg, a "magnetic field" of white lines inscribed on the black tarmac catch moving cars and hold them to the ground for a few hours before releasing them again. In his essay for the book covering the project, Andreas Ruby notes how these lines "describe a linear field that has been transformed into a gently curving arc as though by some force pushing from the side." This intensification of the ground surface is a reccuring theme not only in Hadid's finished designs, but, inevitably, also in the large coloured canvases that she produces as part of her design process. The paintings function as tools to try out design elements, and this exhibition offers a unique chance to see nine of them in the flesh. Not quite sure how a drawing can be a tool? To quote the architect herself: "The drawing is a lens that reveals otherwise imperceptible aspects; it's a method for understanding how things can change and evolve and serve, not for crystallizing a form in a definitive way but to demonstrate the possibilities of what it can become."

NB: advance booking is essential. For tickets contact Natascha Wallace on 020.7420.9410 or via email on natascha.wallace@somserset-house.org.uk. This lecture is being held in conjunction with her exhibition at the Gilbert Collection in Somerset House (till 16/01/05).

With a "surfboard/totem", plastic skull and rope spider's web overhead, Elk Rattle, Kate MacGarry's latest group show, is loosely based on the premise of primitivism and shamanic spirits. The result, like most of MacGarry's spirited group shows, is a fun yet instinctively serious event. Artists like Gauguin and Picasso took to primitive art as a way to break from the 19th-century's insipid salon tradition, but today this particular form is a linguistic form to be plundered as any other. New Yorker Justin Samson has contributed a human-sized "Yeti-alien" and a pair of intricate collages, while Sam Basu presents a selection of his usual "heavy-handed" drawings. Though the parts greatly contribute to the spirit of the whole, it is Brazilian Tiago Carneiro da Cunha's Skull and Sphinx (above the door) that takes the show. Like Picasso's cubist skull made 3-D, this resin version is both "tragic" and "comedy", which to a certain extent sums up the show. Like that primal need to go clubbing (i.e. get shaky and sweaty), the call of the wild still has some grasp on us, and the artists in this show -- like Chris Tosic's need to carve the Easter Island heads out of a pencil -- have responded!

NB: be sure to catch Voodoo Shit at the brand new Hales Gallery when in the neighbourhood.

Sebastien Roux is a French electronic musician and sound artist based in Paris. Besides being a musical assistant at the Paris music institution IRCAM -- creating computerised tools for composers -- his music discoveries are centred around the guitar and on digitally processed drones creating subtle melodic and organic ambient compositions. His work has been featured on many compilations -- on the contemporary minimalist label 12k releases E.A.D.G.B.E. and Two Point Two; the French label N-Rec's Levitate; and on apestaartje's object set and motion. It is on the latter incredibly focused and challenging New York label that Roux releases his first solo full-length recording, gathering into one whole his ability to take the listener into enchanting places. The music is a wonderful acoustic companion as the speed of time flowing shows whilst the four tracks run smoothly into one's ears. This album shows why and how Roux is one of the most interesting emerging contemporary electronic musicians. His live appearances alongside artists such as Mitchell Akiyama, Sogar and his recent collaboration with Kranky's Greg Davis is a promising sign of the Parisian's work. Highly recommended.

Pillow and other apestaartje releases can be bought by clicking here or at Sound 323 (323 Archway Rd., N6).

Inspired by artists such as Piet Mondrian and Jackson Pollock, Felice Varini has created a new visual language through his painterly exploration of architectural spaces. As a painter, he has sought to work outside the limitations of the canvas, putting his oeuvre directly in touch with reality. Varini paints strips of primary colours within closed public spaces such as galleries and factories or against cityscapes, creating forms that reveal themselves from a particular vantage point that is left to the viewer to discover. Varini's forms cleverly manipulate the perception of space and volume. A new optical reality is created as it is filtered through Varini's impressive trompe l'oeils and optical illusions of three dimensional shapes and forms as the lines detach themselves from the surfaces on which they are painted. Varini's work transforms the passive act of seeing into an active experience where the visual reality changes at every new vantage point. This innovative artist has been in group and solo exhibitions around the world; he was born in Switzerland in 1952 and now resides in Paris. This beautiful book has been designed to mirror Varini's work. It shows a collection of images of his various projects over the years as well as some enlightening essays revealing influences, methodology, creative process and so on...

To buy Felice Varini Points of View online click here or buy it through Walther Koenig Books at the Serpentine Gallery (020.7706.4907).

KultureFlash is a free, weekly newsletter covering contemporary culture in and around London. Each week we track down some of the more unusual and interesting events taking place in the Capital and deliver them straight to your inbox. Featuring art, gigs, films, talks, clubs and more -- we are committed to bringing you an eclectic mix of the most stimulating events in London.

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