The gaze is an implicit part of our visual culture: art exhibitions, concerts, films and television shows all involve looking and observing. But, a gaze is rarely an innocent glance. In fact, Freud considered it a system of control, with psychoanalytic implications. Just looking at a subject of pleasure brings up questions of voyeurism, inviting us to reflect on our desires and anxieties, the essence of how we perceive ourselves. This British Art Talk at Tate Britain brings together three contemporary artists who will discuss how they have explored the notion of observation as part of their artistic practice. Dryden Goodwin plays with aesthetic voyeurism to investigate the dynamics of the private and public spheres of observation. Hannah Starkey's film tableaux of female protagonists intermingle fiction and reality to challenge visual constructs of urban culture. Andrew Grassie's tempera paintings consider the subtle differences between painting and photography and the limits of the photo-realist gaze. Together, the artists will discuss how their work illustrates the subtle interplay of looking, both outside and inside.

NB: Andrew Grassie's New Hang, a depiction of an imaginary site-specific art show, is on display in the Art Now space (05/05 till 19/06).

Tonight the London Sinfonietta, along with the BBC Singers and Sound Intermedia, will be performing a selection of pieces by Luigi Nono spanning the composer's lifetime. Otherworldly vocal textures, samples of factory machinery and live electronic manipulation of sounds from real instruments (including some freakishly large woodwind: contrabass flute and contrabass clarinet) will be used to create soundscapes like nothing else; taking influences from composers such as Stockhausen, pushing them further and in turn influencing more recent cultural icons such as Aphex Twin and David Lynch. A rare opportunity to experience these works in a live setting; recordings are one thing but seeing how these sounds are constructed before your eyes and ears is something else.

NB: at 7pm catch Nono's widow and Arnold Schoenberg's daughter Nuria Schoenberg Nono as she gives a pre-concert talk, which should offer insight into the lives and music of two of the most innovative composers of the 20th century.

The Architectural Association offers a smorgasbord of exhibition events opening on Thursday evening. The main gallery investigates the very idea of gallery space with its provocative question "Can buildings curate?", examining the intersection between architecture and art through a focus on the curatorial capacity of architects and artists to critique the spaces we live in. Curated by young London practice Newbetter, Can Buildings Curate merges new commissions from artists and curators with more iconic references; site-specific artworks jostle with videos and drawings from the giants of contemporary practice, whether Diller+Scofidio's sanctioned but irreverent drill-attack on the white walls of New York's Whitney, Rem's analysis of the Russian Hermitage or various of Zaha's swoopy projects. Unusual highlights include documentation of Swiss architect/artist duo Decosterd & Rahm's pursuit of the ephemeral and Neal Rock's psychedelic silicone slithered across the walls. The overall installation promises a collage of postmodern responses to the rigorous modernist boredoms of gallery convention.

In contrast to the white ironies of downstairs, the blackened back member's room will play host to the delicious interactive electronic installation Face Breeder by current AA teachers and ex-DRL students Theodore Spyropoulous (Minimaforms) and Vasili Stroumpakos (00110.org). Originally commissioned by the London Architecture Biennale for Selfridges's storefront windows, their device downloads visitor's faces and remixes them into monstrous hybrids on a grid of hanging computer monitors. Meanwhile artist/fabricator Mike Smith and architect/film-maker Alex Haw fill the central bar space with the results of their intensive Maeda Workshop into the structural capacities of corrugated cardboard. During its current period of chair-less upheaval, their chair-less landscape at the heart of the AA upheaves the traditional floor surface, rippling and flowing between the bar and adjacent rooms, throwing the existing seating into disarray.

A choice of "Cs": canny curation, cyber-collage, or cardboard crystallinity.

NB: the two Swiss cross-carrying duos (Decosterd & Rahm and Drabble + Sachs) will "perform" on Thu 28/04 and Fri 29/05 respectively, followed by a larger panel discussion on Tue 03/05.

Advertising Agencies are mutant fish. The radioactive water they swim in gives rise to all manner of buboes, startling growths and appendages. Indeed there is many a monster of the deep, lurking in the cold depths of the Marianas Trench that would swim a mile if confronted on a dark night by a successful global agency that has been in business since 1981. This makes Pat Fallon's achievement all the more impressive. When he launched his eponymous agency in 1981, he could no more have foreseen the momentous upheavals, consolidations, growth spurts and recessions than a sprat can foresee the monstrous gape of the Angler Fish in the dark ocean. Yet, somehow, Fallon as an agency brand remains strong, with as hard a won local reputation in London and elsewhere as it has in its native Minneapolis. As part of the D&AD's Presidents Lecture series, you can hear this advertising Legend share some of his secrets. And you can almost be sure he'll say nothing about fish. At all.

Despite the over-zealous city-wide posturing (we swear we saw one in Chelsea), the gratingly mainstream media partners, and a minor hitch with Friday-by-day (it's been cancelled) Encompass 2005 looks set to make a fruitful debut this weekend. Like a game of music-industry-buzz-word-bingo, this festival is London's first "global cutting-edge music festival/conference" and it positively screams Shoreditch, in all its overexposed awkwardly beautiful glory. Jibes at bottom-up cultural production and consumption aside, Encompass has many a coup within the line up...

Sonar Kollektiv
Fri 29/04 (7pm) @ Cargo
Hosted by Jazzanova, the Berlin-based Sonar Kollektiv present a night of blissful live sounds from Micatone, Platnum and Benny Sings. Warped electronica and warm soulful beats

Different
Sat 30/04 (8pm - 3am) @ Cargo
Record label Different Recordings (home to Etienne de Crecy) crash into Cargo for a night of unadulterated musical mashups. Swoon for the tunes of Agoria, while Vitalic and Hacker play live (swoon, swoon and swoon again).

Novamute
Sat 30/04 (7pm) @ Herbal
The baby bro to Mute presents Speedy J, Cristian Vogel and T.Raumschmiere in all their hybrid-sound wonder.

Supercharged, Fingelinkin and TCR
Sun 01/05 (2:30 - 10pm) @ 93 Feet East
After running between venues on Saturday night, you may be itching for a day of rest, but when Supercharged, Fingerlickin' and TCR present the Freestylers, Krafty Kuts and Chris Carter among others to hammer the music home at 93 Feet East, crashing out will have to be put on hold. There is always Monday for that.

NB: Encompass 2005 runs from Fri 29/04 till Mon 01/05. See website for full details.

With London museums now regularly offering late night entry, it's time for the V&A to host their frequent Friday nighter in celebration of Spectres: When Fashion Turns Back. Featuring conceptual fashion designer Shelley Fox's new collection, Negative, in the elegant surrounds of the Morris, Poynter and Gamble rooms of the building, the night will also include talks by curators, a tour of the exhibition and drop-in workshops. Fox is the mistress of fabric technique, recognised for her playfully experimental approach to fabric: scorching felt wool, burning cotton and rigorously developing her own fabrics and prints. Negative will use a combination of sound, film projection and live models to explore how the photographic negative transforms an image and influences her unorthodox approach to pattern cutting. It's a ghost story for design.

NB: Spectres... runs till 08/05.

Turner shortlisted artists Jane and Louise Wilson don't seem to get involved in uncomplicated acts. Known for their multi-screen video installations, they engage with the human unconscious and its intersection with architecture and its history; actually theirs is a combination of hauntology, detective work, Mister X-ian "pyschetecture" and performance art. Here they collaborate with ROH2 and Music Theatre Wales to bring another level to Michael Tippett's (1905-98) The Knot Garden. As part of the Tippett Centenary, this opera uses Shakespeare's Tempest as an anchor, while referring to Cosi Fan Tutte and other works. Celebrated as a genuine English musical eccentric, Tippett's controversial but eclectic and intense opera progressively delves deep into the psyche of his seven characters. Combine this intensity with his range of musical references (pop and jazz) and emotional expressions, and you can expect the impact of the Wilson's imagery to be multiplied.

NB: performances are on Mon 30/04, Tue 03/05 and Wed 04/05. This will be the first of ROH2's collaborative projects with the visual arts.

Ok, here are your starters for ten: Who were flown over from New York to play the opening night of Manchester's infamous Hacienda, and later played the closing night of the Paradise Garage, NYC? Who has opened for both Public Image Ltd and A Certain Ratio, collaborated with The Clash and Gang of Four, and released their first UK 7" on Factory Records? Who has been one of the most seminal influences on no wave, post-punk, hip-hop and dance music, and most widely sampled (by Public Enemy to LL Cool J) acts of the last three decades? ESG, aka the larger than life Scroggins sisters from the South Bronx, now augmented by various gal pals and daughters, are indeed responsible for some of the most progressive beats and pared down funk fusion of dub, rap and no wave sounds emerging out of the early '80s, and quietly remain one of the most influential, genre-stepping outfits around. In a co-promotion by boys about town dedbeat (celebrating their fifth birthday) and Eat Your Own Ears, ESG hit KOKO for a phenomenal night of simple, mesmerising drum, bass and vocals action this Saturday. With the track "Dance" recently swiped from their seminal album A South Bronx Story for use on the latest Toyota ad, catch them before the long overdue secret is finally out. Should be special.

NB: support from Superpitcher and DJ Jake Fairley among others.

Dress up to get f*cked up this weekend as Hoxton style queens Druzzi's (or Druzzi's Baltimore Rave Club for long) host an old-style warehouse jam. Park Attack (Optimo-friendly no wave) and Bronze Age Fox (Bristolian folk-pop) are your bands, whilst the more technologically-minded members of Pulp, The Rapture and Simian take to the decks, only to be reminded every five minutes by the Gucci Soundsystem that, well, they've been on for quite a while now and could they have a go? Headlining are Campag Velocet, who really should have a quiet word with Kasabian for half-inching their act wholesale. Campag's Velocet's first single was sung entirely in Nadsat -- the language spoken by Alex and his Droogs in Burgess' A Clockwork Orange -- which is either the height of a certain cool or the mark of an insufferable w*nker.

The Telegraph in Brixton is a curious little place. What appears to be the kind of pub where the area's trendy urbanites will sit browsing the newspapers and mulling over a couple of Sunday afternoon pints and roast chicken transforms, once through the comforting wooden enclave of the downstairs room's back doors, into a TARDIS-like space of DJ booths, gigantic speaker stacks and hard, twisted basslines. Fight your way through the punters on Saturday and you'll be treated to another of the venue's regular ALT*CTRL nights -- a showcase for the best hard electro, insane ragga house, breaks and techno. Leading the charge is Bolz Bolz, previewing his new album, but the real twisted electronica fans should beg, steal and borrow for a ticket to see Si Begg, the unassuming musical mastermind and KultureFlash favourite who splices every single nasty genre of music possible into a hard, jacking blend of ragga, breakbeat and house. He's DJing with a laptop, splicing new tunes into the mix, so expect samples, basslines and more funk than you could shake a stick at. A swollen line-up also features live sets from Sir Real and the Abstrakt Knights, a plethora of other DJs and lunatic visuals.

The May bank holiday weekend cannot help but bring out the absurd. School children knot ribbons around huge upright poles in provincial playing fields, naughty adults smash up coffee shop chains and city types become obsessed with getting hammered on a Sunday. This year, there's a new absurdity to add to the mix: an honourable cricket match in Parliament Square. The Space Hijackers, a group of "Anarchitects" of recent Channel 4 fame, have invited over 600 politicians to get padded up to defend their honour and morals. Embracing the stiff upper lip ethos with a hint of kitsch, county cricket whites will be worn, with cucumber sandwiches and Pimms and lemonade served throughout. The attending parliamentary members are currently unconfirmed: it seems a few are worried about a clash with preparations for another forthcoming event.

Track & Field serve up a nine band feast for their annual POW! to the People all dayer. Headliners Tompaulin have been off the scene for a while but this didn't prevent them getting full marks across the broadsheets on the release of their new album Into the Black, described by the Metro as "where the Velvet Underground's soft feathery drone mixes sadly with the Cowboy Junkies' doomed country romance". Although they've been busy touring Europe, this is just their second London gig of 2005 -- expect sad breathy vocals set against a backdrop of banjo and guitar. Their peers Goldrush perform their latest country-pop while ubiquitous labelmates The Broken Family Band bring a party atmosphere with an extended line-up of friends and special guests.

NB: for the full line-up click here.

Remember your Walkman, Discman, forgotten Palm Pilot, possibly the Mini-Discman, dozens of mobile phones? Fairly soon iPod will plod to this graveyard of handheld technology as we hoard our pennies for the latest must-have, which we can confirm is the brand spanking new PSP from Sony. You can play games on its super slick screen, with up to eight others in your vicinity, download tons of music and games, and watch movies! Hence the kids may think this is for them, but it's not -- and to prove it the marketing chaps have arranged a night of some of London's "so now" acts. Rhythm Factory's "rock room" hosts noise comedians Artbrut headlining fresh from mediocre single reviews, supported by indie baby-makers Kill City and current tipsters The Paddingtons and Metro Riot. Erol Alkan somehow slips this event in his holiest diary with others in the "dance room", and the "hip-hop room" has a unique audience with DJ Cam and DJ Vadim plus more, and of course between dancing you can check out the PSP and all for FREE. Can you believe they let the Americans have this product first? Well they've bought a lot of 'em so we have to wait till late summer or early autumn to own our very own.

NB: this event is free but you need to register on the PSP Union website.

Dedbeat and Eat Your Own Ears come together to present a rare and exciting line up of some of the most seminal and influential electronic and electro/hip-hop acts. Tonight, fresh from his bank-of-the-Nile harem (via Los Angeles), a man obsessed with King Tut, Rudolf Valentino, hip-hop and electro -- Egyptian Lover -- plays his first ever UK live set. Dropping crazy love rhymes over dope old school electro-funk mayhem, Mr Lover Lover asks you to "work, freak and pump that body". There's also a rare treat in the form of deep, layered, simmering radiance from Rhythm & Sound (Basic Channel) whose myriad of offshoots provide utterly absorbing minimal dub-techno cuts. And as if that wasn't enough, Rephlex Records are presenting their own special Braindance party with a live set from clatternoisedrumandbass merchant, with a penchant for melodic electronica, Bogdan Raczynski; the DMX Krew provide funky electro, rave and dance classics; old school Rephlex artist Cylob will be cutting the midrange and dropping the bass; and finally DJ Rephlex Records plays a typically unique and inspiring set of, well, you name it, it'll probably be there. Do not miss.

NB: purchase tickets in advance from Ticketmaster (08701.544.004) and Rough Trade (020.7240.0105).

The Haywire Sessions return for another night of electro madness, and not before time. For the uninitiated, this is the night put on by Rotters Golf Club Svengali, accidental uber-producer and DJ Andrew Weatherall, and used to showcase those musicians who take his eclectic-analogue-electric philosophy to heart. Hosted on 1 May in ex-rave venue Jacks, the line-up is as impressive as ever -- Weatherall is bringing his not inconsiderable DJing skills to the party along with RGC stalwart Keith Tenniswood (playing with Weatherall under their Two Lone Swordsmen moniker). Hardcore electro deck-monsters Dexorcist, Warlock and Mat Carter also appear on the bill. Those in attendance should expect monstrous bass and live tweaking of reverb and effects -- anything to whip the crowd up into a lather, essentially. Deep, hard and immensely funky musical landscapes interspersed with the occasional moment of melodic bliss is the forte of these characters. If you like your electro with more than a hint of the dirty dark side, hotfoot it to this club's roomy arches.

Bassist Mike Watt is a true pioneer. Founding The Minutemen in late-'70s San Pedro with childhood friend D Boon he created a body of work that was to prove hugely influential on the emergent US hardcore movement. Fiercely political, sparse yet drawing on unlikely traditions such as jazz, funk and folk, the band were the embodiment of punk's independent spirit. Pioneering the maximum-gigs, no budget "econo"-style of touring, they piss-bottled across the US in a battered van, firing the synapses of punk's emergent consciousness. D Boon's death in a auto-accident forced Watt to reconsider playing music altogether, but he remained central to the US alternative scene, with fIREHOSE (each fIREHOSE album contained a dedication to Boon) and numerous collaborations with acolytes like Sonic Youth, and J Mascis. Not to mention extracurricular activities like The Watt From Pedro radio show. Forming the bass-organ-drums combo The Secondmen, he recorded two albums (when not touring with the reformed Stooges). Watt's unpredictability is evident in his latest record -- The Secondman's Middle Stand is a rock opera inspired by his recent perennial abscess.

The face of jazz has changed dramatically over the last 50 years, but some musicians seem to make the transition seamlessly from one movement to the next, always staying one step ahead of the game. Ornette Coleman has long been seen as a revolutionary saxophonist whose unique style of jazz fusion known as "harmolodics" once polarised the jazz community. In truth he is a composer and musician of diverse talents. Although he is probably best known for his earliest work, such as The Shape of Jazz to Come (Atlantic) and Something Else (Contemporary), Coleman has worked in a wide variety of musical climates ranging from the Civilization project with the New York Philharmonic, to the collaboration with Howard Shore on the creation of the soundtrack for Naked Lunch. His career, which began in the segregated south, has spanned nearly five decades, making him difficult to categorise as his music has continually changed and evolved to fulfil his ever-progressive and forward reaching vision of jazz. This Bank Holiday Monday at the Barbican, Coleman can be seen celebrating his 75th birthday and performing with Andy Sheppard and tabla player Kuljit Bhamra. What better way to wrap up the weekend.

The smash-hit comedy from Iran, The Lizard, which had people queuing for hours for tickets in its home country, has made it to our screens thanks to the ICA. An outstanding satirical take on the Iran's attitude to its clergy, it follows the story of a Reza the thief, known as the Lizard for his house burgling abilities. Sentenced to life in prison with a dictatorial prison warden showing him no mercy, Reza's thoughts turn to suicide until a friendly and wise Imam shows the unsuspecting Reza the path to heaven. Lead actor Parvis Parastouie is the kind of brilliant, funny and talented actor whose work may be legendary in his own country, but appears like a fresh, newly discovered talent in our eyes. Despite The Lizard's obvious storyline, which follows the lead of such genre-films as Some Like It Hot, Sister Act, and Nuns on the Run, its Eastern setting and complex satire give it a unique twist.

NB: The Lizard was released in London on 22/04 and runs till 12/05. For more on Iranian cinema check out the Abbas Kiarostami Festival at the V&A (26/04 till 21/06).

Think of the venue The Mean Fiddler and immediately it brings to mind spilt beer, angsty rock and hoodie-wearing teenagers trampling over each other to get to the front of the stage and catch a droplet or two of Good Charlotte's spittle. The venue's promoters have broken from the norm and thrown the impressive set-up open to one of electronic music's most thoughtful, technical and visionary artists -- Amon Tobin, Brazilian expat and creator of fine, dense electronic sound structures. Signed to Ninja Tune, Tobin developed a reputation for making songs that transcended the lachrymose meanderings of trip-hop whilst capturing the best orchestral atmospherics of the genre. Forays into drum and bass and a sublime Solid Steel mix album for the label followed, and led to Tobin being commissioned to write the score for Ubisoft's Splinter Cell 3: Chaos Theory game, pipping Lalo Schifrin to the post. Rapturous reviews have led him to bring it to the live arena, and he'll be performing it in 5.1 Digital Surround Sound. This really will be worth checking out, no matter what kind of electronica you're into -- his sound is varied, lush and wildly innovative, and should appeal to all. Catch him now before he's selling out arenas in South America!

Back in the day, Shakespeare once picked up his quill and felt compelled to take it Roman and offer his own interpretation of the last days of Caesar. The resulting product was a dramatic masterpiece, enveloped by equally intriguing measures of loyalty, treachery, cunning, bravery, and that old perennial, love and hate. This production is directed by Deborah Warner and the cast's performance really approximates the tension and drama that Julius Caesar is so renowned for. Modern day Shakespearian behemoth Simon Russell Beale, fresh from a critically mixed version of Macbeth at the Almeida, dons the cloaks of Cassius, as he conceives of the plan to dispose of the emperor with the help of Brutus much to the chagrin of Mark Anthony. Ralph Fiennes makes a return to the London stage as the initially flamboyant and then bereaved Mark Anthony, and offers a slightly stilted and jerky performance, which is visibly overshadowed by the assured presence of Beale, sturdy authority of John Shrapnel as Caesar, and the frenzied vacillating of Anton Lesser as Brutus. Perhaps the defining characteristic of this production is the immensity of the cast. With over 100 extras, the crowd scenes offer a truly visceral element to the proceedings and the modern dress and set only further lead us to connect this play to conflicts currently afflicting our society.

NB: Julius Caesar runs till 14/05.

The Mountain Goats is the trading name of Californian singer-songwriter John Darnielle. A veteran of the US indie underground, Darnielle's has long been a lo-fi calling (many of his albums were recorded straight to cassette on domestic boom boxes), but a recent signing to UK indie bastion 4AD has been accompanied by a, perhaps overdue, move to the recording studio. Still a brusque, uncompromising lyricist, The Sunset Tree encases Darnielle's harsh but persuasive singing voice in a simple (though in his case relatively luxuriant) acoustic, chamber-folk setting. It's an impressive marriage of the tender and the austere. The album's litany of autobiographical songs (themselves a rarity in the 'Goats defiantly forward-looking canon), are shot through with cynicism on one hand and aching wistfulness on the other. The track "Dance Music", for example, rekindles an obviously pivotal moment in Darnielle's youth ("I'm in the living room watching the Watergate hearings, while my stepfather yells at my mother") but is essayed with an almost cinematic dispassion, allowing the subtle musical arrangement to tease out the latent nostalgia. All in all a compelling addition to one of US rock's (undeservedly) lesser known oeuvres.

To buy The Sunset Tree online click here.

Scandal in the art world never really lasts long, for the energy that necessitates the constant revolutions of modern art require greater outrages. Gilbert & George landed on the scene as "grey men", not John Major grey, but robotic "Singing Sculpture" grey (actually covered with bronze paint). Their "art" being that of a double act, not just as a duo but to go as far as completing each other's sentences, eventually leading to the artwork encompassing every aspect of their public lives. Having met at Central Saint Martins in 1967 [our representatives at Venice this year], they pushed this idea of acting between art and life by rejecting traditional sculpture and becoming part of the '60s Happenings via "meal sculptures", "lecture sculptures" and most famously, "singing sculptures". Perhaps they were the original YBAs, now OBAs, of their day! Certainly where they were challenging in their '60s mode of "parody-critiquing" the English institution, they now seem to be out-YBAing Damien et al with their bodily waste photo-collages; though these references to our excrement and living in a time of AIDS seems to be more socially oriented than their louder replacements. Here's a chance to catch these living sculptures being their usual politely impolite selves in a rare series of candid conversations with French film critic-author and confidant, Francois Jonquet.

To buy Gilbert & George: Intimate Conversations with Francois Jonquet 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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