Those with anything from a moderate to passionate interest should drop in on Ana Sanchez-Colberg's discussion of Rudolf von Laban's revolutionary influence on Western dance. The leading dance scholar will look in particular at the impact the Austro-Hungarian originator of expressionism in dance has had on contemporary dance training; specifically through the intermediary of important pupils such as Mary Wigman and Kurt Jooss (The Green Table). One of the first Europeans to break with the stiff canons of academic ballet, he worked with both trained and untrained dancers to evolve a freer style from more ordinary movement. He also invented what has become the most indispensable and widely used dance notation system -- Labanotation. In addition the discussion should bring some clarity to the ideas behind Eukinetics and take understandings of Eurhythmics a little way beyond Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart.

McLaughlin's work treads a thin line between the puritan rigours of modernism and the poetics of romanticism. Having set up his own own practice in 1990, his early works solemnly and lovingly explored the textures, meanings and associations of materials. Once he started teaching Diploma at the Bartlett, an interest in traditional materiality ceded to traditional modernism on the path of a very current minimalism (like Pawson, he's also dabbled in austere monasteries). This has become increasingly overt in a slew of houses and west London conversions, all painted in white and bathed in light. The bizarre, almost biomorphic dragonfly form of his photographer's hide in Northamptonshire (1996) seems to have concluded an interest in form in favour of a growing fascination with light, introducing his signature use of louvred skylights to filter slanting shafts of sun. More recently, he worked with artist Martin Richman to wrap his new Peabody housing cubes with strips of spectacular specular film. He has also pursued freer geometries in the billowing curves of the (white) Bexhill bandstand and his recurrent fetish for fields of curious little hovering machines on stilts. These, replete with dangling cables, are often strung overhead like artificial ivy, casting intricate dappled light. Young British Architect of the Year in 1998, McLaughlin's work combines the passion of craft with thoughtful, sensual experiment. Walk towards the light!

NB: for some exotic architecture, in this case building in post-war Beirut, catch Lebanese architect Bernard Khoury when he gives a talk at the Royal Academy on Mon 21/03 (6:30pm).

Documentary maker Nick Broomfield has taken time out of his busy schedule getting up the noses of people in authority to present a Q&A session and in-store appearance at two venues in London, all in the name of promoting the book Documenting Icons (Faber & Faber), which covers his 25-year career as author of some of the most notorious movies released. Movies such as Kurt & Courtney, Biggie & Tupac and Aileen: The Life and Death of a Serial Killer have earned him a real degree of notoriety and left him with more anecdotes under his belt than most of us have had hot dinners. This is the perfect opportunity to grill the man on his brushes with authorities, businesses and the BBFC, and find out what motivates him to fly in the face of accepted versions of events as we hear and understand them. The surroundings couldn't be more auspicious either -- the in-store appearance will take place in the lofty Waterstones flagship store in Piccadilly, and a Q&A at the Curzon Soho cinema will be accompanied by screenings of Juveline Liaison and Driving Me Crazy, two of his less well-known but superior movies.

NB: Catch Nick Broomfield as he signs copies of his new book Documenting Icons on Thu 16/03 (6:30pm) at Waterstones and then catch him on Sun 20/03 (12:30pm) at the Curzon Soho.

Gonzo music journalist Lester Bangs described Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music as the "the greatest album ever made", no doubt with some sarcasm, but you should credit the writer who can get through an album full of feedback and metal grate. Curator and experimental filmmaker Steve Ball, under the umbrella of The Island Art Film & Video Festival, is bringing us a show of experimental sound video, Microprocessors. Don't fear, this is not quite a sound video version of MMM, rather an interesting mix, like KF, of the more visually accessible work with the more difficult abstract variety. From Philip Sanderson's pixellated "autochoreography" of musical fragments, to Maia Gusberti's "everyday abstraction" as she follows a phone line, and Bas Van Koolwijk's more extreme, but hopefully more fulfilling, "products". This mini-fest has the feel of early video art, but with new technologies, our MTV-ized sensibilities and mediated lives, we expect that this little collection will help hone our battered senses. So forget yer Bangs' sarcasm, but bring along that critical mind and allow your regular idea of kulture to be unhinged. You might yet unearth the greatest music video ever made!

NB: this show is part of the Island Art Film & Video Festival organised by the Prenelle Gallery and the West India Quay UGC Cinema.

If you're at a loose end on Thursday head down to The Spitz, one of the East End's most enduringly popular music and drinking venues, for an evening of eclectic fun and frolics at the hands of Slipper (Sam Dodson of Loop Guru's solo project), Naked Sunday Collective, Lishka and Moist (formed from the ashes of critically acclaimed electrojazz outfit Lob). In accordance with the venue's "anything goes, as long as it's cool" music policy, this lineup brings new meaning to the term "varied" -- the Naked Sunday Collective being a group of jazz musicians from Woking, whose traditional instruments/turntables policy will fit well, if a little incongruously, with support act Moist's similarly jazzy but ultimately more psychedelic ambient sounds. It's worth attending to see if you can meet the most amusingly named man in avant-garde jazz, Rat Scabies, ex of The Damned and now playing in Slipper. The theme of the evening is very much small, jazzy bands and, washed down with a couple of beers and some of the venue's good food, should start the weekend nicely. Because weekends do begin on Thursdays, don't they?

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-80), in France, fulfilled the role Bertrand Russell did in this country and, possibly, Susan Sontag or Edward Said in America. They were public intellectuals. Rather than just working in their specialist fields, they contributed generally to public life. Said, in his Reith Lectures, called for intellectuals to fulfil their duty to the public, to take a stand, and no one, especially a member of the French Resistance, could be a better example than JPS. Philosophically an Existentialist, politically Communist, Sartre's first novel Nausea best introduces the human side of his philosophy, that is to confront reality or, rather, the freedoom to confront reality. In France, he is probably better regarded for his plays, novels and literary criticism, which provided another outlet for his creativity. Though Foucault disagreed with him philosophically, Sartre was the very model of the politicised thinker that he aspired to be; in fact, they frequently found themselves at the same barricades. So on the centenary year of his birth, the UK Society for Sartrean Studies is bringing together Sartreans from all over the world to speak on topics from his life to postmodernism, phenomenology, literature, among others.

NB: this symposium runs on Fri 18/03 (9:30am to 6pm) and on Sat 19/03 (9:30am to 5:30pm).

Despite having ditched the third-Thursday-of-the-month-slot for the more mainstream third-Friday the Xfm Remix night continues to do eclectic good. The ugly-beautiful Cargo crowd will be mashing up angular jolts with sexual moves to live soul-house from Crazy P*nis, a schizophrenic Glimmers set and Nordic sounds from Annie. This Friday will, quite simply, rock. Crazy Penis will perform tracks from their fan-f*cking-tastic third album 24 Hour Psychedelic Freakout, showing off how easy it is to fuse '70s funk, deep house, soul and pop. The Glimmers Twins, now called The Glimmers (recently forced to change their name), Mo and Benoelie will step to the decks with bags full of twisted electro, broken beats and defiant pop tunes. Making sure it's not just the boys having all the music making fun, Annie, of "Chewing Gum" fame (679 Recordings), will be guest DJing. The Norwegian lovely will be showing off her music tastes with the boys until 3am.

"Abbey Road", could other words be more steeped in pop history? Maybe, "Graceland". Immortalised by the Fab Four on the cover of that eponymous album cover, No. 3 Abbey Road is, together with Elvis' pad, one of the landmarks of Pop. Purchased by EMI in 1929 (they existed then!?), the Victorian mansion was turned into a purpose-built recording studio. Edward Elgar himself conducted the first recording, "Land of Hope and Glory", in 1931. Other famous names have graced the three recording studios, but it was four mop topped lads from up North who rattled the schedules with their late nights and long sessions that put it on the cultural map. After those seven remarkable years, the place, though continuing its tradition of working with musicians through the decades, opened its doors to Hollywood. Raiders of the Lost Ark was one of the first, and now to celebrate this great history of film and music, the most technically advanced music studios are converting Studio One for two weeks. With Hard Day's Night and Raiders on the bill, this series of films, all mixed at the venue itself, this will be an event to remember just cause it's never thrown open its doors to the public before.

NB: runs till 03/04.

Punk has mutated over the years from being a preserve of spiky haired disaffected youths replete with guitars, bag'o'speed, bass, spots and drums, to being an encompassing genre represented more by an attitude than a specific sound. Thus electronic music can now be regarded as punk in its DIY, uncompromising and frenetic nature just as much as the conventional guitar origins. The ICA is the venue for the latest This is our Punk-Rock event, with a line up promising a night of fascinating, inspiring sounds. The living embodiment of the mighty Four Tet, aka Kieran Hebden will deliver one of his unusual DJ sets, completely throwing the rule book aside as he punkishly goes about creating a sonic aural haze. Warp perennials Plaid will be whipping out the trusty laptop ( = new punk accessory...) to create a typically deep, leftfield and memorable set: have faith your trusty ears will be challenged. Zan Lyons will appear with his own interpretation of the rock show: a live experience with Wong Kar Wai-inspired visuals, screeching violins and other dirty sounds all underpinned by masochistic beats. As if you weren't spoilt enough, DJ N>E>D (Warp) and Kweku Aacht will deliver further blasts of sublime and uncompromising sounds... enjoyably challenging nights at the ICA. Keep it up Mr Eshun!

Matmos is the San Francisco electronic duo MC Schmidt and Drew Daniel, still best known for their various recorded and live collaborations with Bjork. In truth, "electronic" doesn't really do them justice, as their own quintet of albums have embraced everything from gruesome amplified rhinoplasty (on 2001's A Chance To Cut Is A Chance To Cure) to Elizabethan folk songs (on 2003's The Civil War). Their other sound sources include crayfish, rodent cages and buckets of livestock feed -- so don't go expecting banging house beats or delicate micro-processor tone poems -- though all things are possible. Part of the Southbank's laudably leftfield Ether Festival, tonight's bill also welcomes Wire magazine favourites, the deliciously named Zeena Parkins (who works with processed harps, and tonight joins drummer-turned programmer Ikue Mori) and the even more deliciously named Charlemagne Palestine (a seasoned purveyor of the trance-like drone); so black framed spectacles and an air of ascetic inscrutability should be the order of the day.

NB: this concert is part of the Ether Festival, which runs till 28/03.

This week Fabric invites a techno titan to vibrate its boom-boom rooms. Sven Vath: hewn from European techno, creator of hi-concept trance, with the stamina to withstand sets lasting months at Frankfurt's Cocoon club. Like other veteran DJs, Vath has taken to blacking out areas of his face a la Boy George. (Though while George favours the "black neck", Sven sports an eyepatch effect like a camp pirate). Moving away from extravagant opuses (eg 1995's The Harlequin, the Robot and the Ballet Dancer) Vath has recently concentrated on straightforward body-moving beats. Also worth catching is the superb electro-pop of Sieg Uber Die Sonne and the sleek techno minimalism of Run Stop Restore collective (individually Magda, Troy Pierce and Marc Houle). Not to mention Fabric regulars Craig Richards and Terry Francis.

With a name that's both alliterative and assonant, Peter Porter had two choices of career, either he would be a marvel comics hero or a poet. Much to the relief of evil super geniuses everywhere he chose poetry. Some forty years, myriad books and prizes later, here he is, ready to pass his laurels to the poetasters, ryhmers, loblolly men, losels and literary louts of London. If you're planning to attend Porter's masterclass, it may pay to take a poem or two with you. As he's Australian we like this one, it's from those funny fellows at Monty Python's flying circus; "Here I have a wattle / The emblem of our land / You can stick it in a bottle / Or you can hold it in your hand." Take that one, it'll make the little possum feel at home.

NB: tickets to this event are only bookable from The Poetry School (1A Jewel Rd., E17). Please phone 020.8223.0401 or send an email to programme@poetryschool.com.

What a visual and aural treat! This double-bill features the highly anticipated London premiere of Flicker -- a collaboration reuniting Jeyasingh with Nyman after 17 years, with set designed by Digit. Back in '88 their creative process was taut with tension over the different arithmetics of their rhythmic worlds. East and West? It just didn't add up. Since their initial culture clash, they've leaped forward in leaps and bounds. Jeyasingh no longer regards herself merely as an Asian choreographer, but more "modern". Meanwhile, for Flicker, Nyman has abandoned the string quartet of past and delved into electronica. For both, they have allowed their cultural roots to morph into a more hybrid existence. This is what it's about -- developing one's identity through a process of editing or retaining aspects of your past. Nyman's electronic score for electric guitar and electronic tape reflects Jeyasingh's edgy choreography as her seven dancers explore flickering facades in this pulsating and sparky partnership. The double-bill opens with a reworked Transtep, set in a neon-lit space and performed to an eclectic mix of sounds from the electronics of Ryoji Ikeda to the baroque exuberance of Monteverdi. All in all it'll be fusion of the senses, and as Jeyasingh says, "It's postmodern going on science fiction". Enjoy.

NB: Transtep and Flicker will be performed on both Tue 22/03 and Wed 23/03.

Family rows about ideological differences are a necessary part of teenage rebellion; finding that a good friend has gone over to the Dark Side is deeply unsettling, and the instinct is to ostracise them rather than to question one's own beliefs. After two years of not speaking to his friend Geert, who'd voted for popular racist politician Pim Fortuyn, Dutch artist/activist Erik van Lieshout turns their reconciliation into a film. Van Lieshout's multi-media art has consistently challenged the illusion of Dutch liberalism through humour and guerrilla tactics. This latest video collage juxtaposes the friends' playful debate in the yuppie comforts of a bachelor flat with documentation of the demonstrations following the murder by an Islamist of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh (who was in the process of making a film about Fortuyn); Chris Morris-style interviews with residents of an overwhelmingly "white" neighbourhood, coerced into making a connection between the lack of immigrants and the absence of cockroaches (an anti-immigration term for foreigners); and a van Lieshout family reunion. The Awakening makes plain the extent of prejudice and hypocrisy in Dutch society, from which neither the artist, nor his friends and family can claim exemption. A powerful work, which has resonance in recent British "anti-terrorist" laws. (Runs till 20/03.)

NB: on Sun 20/03 (6pm) at Bethnal Green's Working Mens Club (42 Pollard Row, E2), Olivia Plender presents A Public Meeting to Address the Phenomenon of Materialization (a Man in the Holocene event).

Traversing the world requires maps. Traversing our world, that is how we understand ourselves within the grand scheme of things, also requires maps. No other intellectual around today can race from Kant to Altman's Short Cuts and Einstein's Theory of Relativity in three breezy sentences, though this does not make the Slovenian philosopher/political theorist an easy ride. Rather this hour-long foray into things Zizekian, though ostensibly a lecture about belief, is also a nice way to ease yourself into the complex multiverse of Slavoj Zizek. Here the bearded, sweaty one sits in a library and works his way through the "virtual real", a thoughtful, though complicated, canter through how we structure our world or how to understand what we believe. What is charismatic about the man is his ability to compress big ideas into an everyday Hollywood reality. Pay attention and you will find that his idea of "practising utopia" arrived via a Lacanian critique of Capitalism with heaps of Marxist and Hegelian "overturns" thrown-in.

Friction, a new night showcasing the hotter-than-a-bowl-of-chillis Asian breakbeat and jungle sounds currently steaming through clubland, begins its tenure at Cargo. The event is the brainchild of Radio 1's Bobby Friction, who hosts a show along with fellow DJ Nihal that brings to the eager public the sounds of UK bhangra -- a blend of traditional Asian music with rough drums, grimy bass, rinsing breakbeats and a strong street vibe. It's odd that they've chosen to elect dinner party background music stalwart Nitin Sawhney to headline the first of these cutting-edge events, but his popular, heavily musical brand of drum and bass is guaranteed to pull in the punters. Far more worth looking forward to is a DJ set from Friction himself -- Nihal also takes to the decks, and there's a set from Sona Family, a cool new DJ and MC collective featuring up-and-coming female rapper Hard Kaur. As always, Cargo's a great place to experience this kind of music live, if you're not one to be put off by earnest young men with backpacks and goatees, and the eclectic mix of styles should have enough variety to keep most entertained. Proceeds go to Oxfam, so it's all for a worthy cause too.

Maria Full of Grace is an eye-opening and tense look at the plight of female drug mules used by the Colombian drugs industry to export heroin to the USA. What Joshua Marston's debut feature may lack in visual spark, it makes up for in its brilliant performances and well-researched script. Non-professional actors Catalina Sandino Moreno and Yeni Paola Vega play Maria and Blanca, two girls from the country tempted by the offer of a free holidays, lots of pocket money and an end to the gruelling work in the flower factory. In exchange they have to swallow dozens of throat-stretching heroin-filled pellets and carry them in their stomachs to New York. Catalina Sandino Moreno won Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival (the Silver Bear) for her performance as Maria, the dangerous and determined girl striving to make more of her life. In her character Joshua Marston manages to distil the extraordinary element of willpower and survival instinct that drives people to take huge risks for the chance of a better life.

NB: Maria Full of Grace is released in London on 25/03.

Like Andy Warhol, Elizabeth Peyton's admiration for pop-culture icons has made her as cool and celebrated as her famous subjects. But unlike Warhol, for whom the glimmering aura of fame was universally alluring, Peyton is not interested in shiny and forgettable pop-culture. Instead, she selects from the pantheon of contemporary and historical figures only those whose faces and myth signify a soul struggling underneath fame's surface sheen. Her paintings are less portraits of famous personalities than visions of the person beneath the persona. The magic of her art is in how she highlights the kernel of self-doubt and damnation inside the beneficiaries of life's many blessings. Thus, in a painting like Pete and Carl, she reproduces the cover photograph of The Libertines' eponymous second LP, giving Pete Doherty's cutie-pie face a more appropriate gauntness. And her portrait of John Kerry as a sensitive, thoughtful young man was the most poignant image of him to emerge during his lackluster presidential run. Here Peyton presents ten new watercolour or oil on board paintings and three new drawings that prove she is more than a souped up Warhol-like sycophant, or an art star -- she is perhaps our only current great Romantic poet.

NB: runs till 02/04.

In sync with his first German museum show, Darren Almond has created a photobook of slow exposure night landscapes. Shot only during a full moon and inspired by Romantic painters, 50 moons at a time brings us eerie nightscapes so bright that we might be fooled into thinking it was day. Almond, whose work was included in Sensation as well as the last Biennale, has been fascinated by time and memory, or, more importantly, time's passage, but here he touches upon another dimension by taking views from Constable, Turner, Koninck, and so on. At another level, Almond could be described as a "travel artist". Where in the past artists brought their easels or watercolours, this one journeys and, sometimes, returns with films or photographs, but the result is not just representation; Almond's act translates reality. Here in a fold-out interview with exhibition curator Julian Heynen, the artist discusses these works as well as his overview at K21 in Duesseldorf. In the past, and still today, explorers went to the ends of the earth to declare that Man could reach there. Now we can send artists so that we too can reach there... or at least via the artwork.

To buy 50 moons at a time 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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