Read about George Lucas and you'll find that the most successful indie filmmaker of all time came from an arthouse background and was inspired by the most esoteric films, yet despite all that he brought us lines like "these are not the droids you're looking for", not to mention Ewoks and Wookies. In another dimension, Lucas may have been what Paul Bush is today. The Londoner has over the decades been assembling these rather engaging but unusual short, short films: a sequence of insects evolve in front of our eyes, while in the busiest part of Tokyo Bush's "Samurais" hold still for five minutes, and a film camera catches a touch of schizophrenia a la Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde! Trained as an artist but bridging that gap between painting, animation, film and collage, Bush has, over many decades, been labouring in his own little universe albeit a more visually intellectual one than George's, and will be the subject of this mini-mini retrospective. Who knows, maybe over time his demands on our visual intelligence may even surpass Dolby or any of those CGI creations from the Dark Side.

NB: Paul Bush's films will be included in festivals through the summer and While Darwin Sleeps... is also on permanent display at the Natural History Museum, Lucern, Switzerland.

With all the recent talk of "icon fatigue", it's easy to overlook some contemporary buildings that have achieved iconic status not by shouting but just by being perfectly formed. The twin Hungerford footbridges created by Lifschutz Davidson are just this -- an integral part of the "new" London skyline that make you feel warm and happy every time you spot them. Strangely, pedestrian bridges seem to have been some of the best architecture of recent years -- Jim Eyre and Thomas Heatherwick have both meditated on the theme lately, and London has some fantastic specimens, be they unfurling, twisting or wobbly. Tragically Liftschutz's co-designer Ian Davidson died in 2003, not long after the Hungerford bridges were completed, but he could have left behind no better landmark to be remembered by. It's fitting then that that the talk is presented in conjunction with the Tate Britain's current Turner/Whistler/Monet show, which takes the Thames as one of its themes, and includes both Monet and Whistler's views of the old Hungerford bridge.

NB: for those archiflashers out there make sure you catch David Adjaye at the Design Museum (Wed 11/05), Benedetta Tagliabue at RIBA (Tue 17/05) and Jean Nouvel at Union Chapel (Wed 25/05).

Following last year's sold out weekend, Sadler's Wells brings back Breakin' Convention with an innovative hip-hop dance theatre programme from around the world. Hosted and curated by Jonzi D, the weekend will be full of performances, workshops, debates and freestyle sessions, featuring poppers, lockers, b-boys and b-girls from Canning Town to Korea. Taking the street to a stage that aspires to be the National Dance Theatre is a challenge that the hip-hop scene is now ready to face. Last year everybody, including staff at Sadler's Wells, was taken aback by the massive success of the first edition of Breakin' Convention. Join the kids and their parents too and come down to the Wells to check out the latest moves and beats. You can wander in and out of the auditorium, voice your views at a debate or just join in for a freestyle session. These are often the most exciting because of the raw energy that goes into joining a battle.

NB: Breakin' Convention 2005 runs from Fri 13/05 till Sun 15/05. Headlining acts are Wanted Posse (France), Electric Boogaloos (USA), Top 9 (Russia), Compagnie Revolution (France), Boy Blue (UK) and ZooNation (UK).

Not quite Frieze, photo-london is working hard to take the commercial terrain currently the preserve of the Photographer's Gallery. With such a heated art market and the elevation of photography, not to mention just the depth of complexity it has acquired over the last few decades, it is no wonder that there is now a fair dedicated to bringing out its wonders from the 19th century daguerreotype to contemporary video. To warm us up for the event, Richard Billingham, he of Ray's A Laugh fame and currently exhibiting new work at Anthony Reynolds (till 29/05), will be speaking at the NPG about his recent work, night views of his home town (Sun 14/05 at 4pm). To add to the fun, six galleries in the East End will be open late for one evening (Fri 13/05 from 6 - 10:30pm): Curator Space, Counter Gallery, Museum 52, Scout and Trolley. Get a stamp at each venue and enjoy the fair for free. What more could you ask for? Well, at the evening's end, Massimo Vitali will be taking a group photograph at the Mother advertising agency (10pm).

NB: the main photo-london fair runs from 19/05 till 22/05 at Burlington Gardens, the Royal Academy.

The Independent Cinema Office was set up to work with organisations and individuals involved in the dissemination of indie film in the UK, offering advice and support in the creation of both innovative and commercially viable public cinema. A showcase of some of the projects the office has been involved in rolls into the capital this week. Making its temporary home at the ICA, the festival offers three chances for a "brief encounter". Tall Orders (Fri 13/05) consists of a compilation of shorts with Scandinavia, Singapore, South Africa and the UK all being represented. In The Company Of Men (Sat 14/05) takes a look at what it is to be a contemporary man, surveying all the forms the male gender can take, from geeky to macho. The Best of British (Sun 15/05) should do just what it says on the tin and includes the screening of Northern Soul by Shane "TwentyFourSeven" Meadows, which looks at the futile dream of a lonely nine-stone young man to join his heroes of the British Pro Wrestling ring; plus the Nottingham love story about the power of knitting, directed by Annie Watson whose previous work includes the beautifully shot video of I Monster's "Daydream In Blue".

NB: Brief Encounters runs Fri 13/05, Sat 14/05 and Sun 15/05. Its next stop is Derby, from which it carries on round the country.

This year's Sonic Arts Network's Cut And Splice Festival explores the relationship between musical notation and the sounds visually represented by it with some rarely performed works involving some unusual media.

The opening event is a performance of Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate (1922-32), a piece in sonata form but notated entirely as text using the natural rhythm and phrasing found in human speech and highlighting its musical qualities. This is being performed by sound poet Jaap Blonk; a leading interpreter of this incredible work -- twisting and contorting his voice to create incredible sounds.

For the duration of the whole festival there is also an exhibition showing scores and works fitting into the theme of the festival, including works by artists/composers featured in the festival and others including Fluxus artists, Brecht and copies of the amazing SOURCE magazine (1967-72, not the hip-hop one!) containing some utterly bizarre scores. (From 14/05 till 03/06 at Jerwood Space, SE1.)

Concert 1 at LSO St Luke's (22/05) involves "playing the room" to some extent or other in all three pieces: Robert Ashley's The Wolfman (1962) for vocals, tape and microphone involving masses of feedback and distortion, building to a haemorrhage-inducing primal cacophony. Peter Alblinger's IEAOV pieces use the room's frequency response as the source material for the composition. The final piece is Mauricio Kagel's Acustica (1969) for experimental sound-producers and loud-speakers involving invented musical instruments being played at moments chosen by the musicians, along with an electronic backing created by Kagel at the time of writing.

Concert 2 (29/05) will bring in live visual art too -- Chinese calligraphy and painting will be created as sonic artist Yasunao Tone sculpts the sounds made. Carsten Nicolai, Olaf Bender and Frank Bretschneider of Raster-Noton will also perform using both sonic and visual media simultaneously, creating art there and then.

The festival's final piece, performed at Jerwood Space (03/06), will be John Cage's William's Mix (03/06 at Jerwood Space), a piece for tape, involving splicing together over 600 different recordings of various sounds, put together using chance methods based on the I Ching to create something "completely free of individual taste".

NB: Cut And Splice 2005 runs from 13/05 to 03/06.

World-renowned Dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey is due to make an appearance at the Wigmore Hall, performing the complete JS Bach Suites for solo cello. This volume of pieces were, until the beginning of the 20th century, assumed to be mere exercises until Pablo Casals realised the subtlety in their depth and complexity and have now become a cornerstone of the cello repertoire. Wispelwey brings a different interpretation of them, more personal and unpretentious. It is most likely that he will perform them on a period instrument(s) as he has on his recording, including the violoncello piccolo, for which the 6th Suite was probably written. These instruments lack the power of modern instruments but make up for it in sound quality -- light, delicate yet full.

NB at 3:30pm catch Pieter Wispelwey as he discusses the evening's programme.

Furthur are jackin' the house once again with an awesome line-up for this month's The Poke. First up we have Mark Pritchard who, as one half of Global Communication and Jedi Knights, is one of the most important producers of electronic music for over a decade, covering ambient, electro, hip-hop, library music, and practically every genre out there. Another special guest is Droppin' Science label owner Danny Breaks, who runs offshoot label Alphabet Zoo with Pritchard and who is as happy making instrumental hip-hop and breaks as he is firing out some fierce drum 'n' bass. Next up Ninja stalwart DJ Food, who has become renowned for his versatility on the decks. Also in the main room, fresh from the releases How To Kill The DJ and Psyche Out, JD Twitch from Glasgow Club Optimo will assault ears with a skronked mix of no wave, whorehouse, punk funk and go-go. In Room 2 we have a special showcase from Glasgow label Stuff Records, featuring live sets from the no school anthemic Marcia Blaine School For Girls and the glitched-up electro-funk of Magic Daddy and Truffle Club. With some sci-fi disco jazz, we have erectro-pop duo Cnut -- like Bryan Ferry and David Byrne to an electro-boogie beat -- and DJ sets from Dick Stuff and Guy Veale (Spezial Material).

NB: tickets can be purchased in advance from ticketweb.co.uk.

Matthew Herbert's progression from experimental electronic pioneer via big band impresario through to main-room superstar DJ has been well charted by the press, who have had a lasting love affair with the unassuming, multi-monikered musician and producer. Whilst Squarepusher et al were refining their "drumkit falling down stars"-soundalike sets, Herbert had gone one step further and released records of himself doing things like eating crisps -- since then he's taken his big band on the road in a melding of styles not seen since Jeremy Deller punted Acid Brass at us, and this weekend he plays the big room in Fabric with elderly tech-house stalwart Terry Francis. Akufen and Swedish techno genius Adam Beyer -- whose remix of Underworld's "Push Upstairs" needs to rank as one of the best ever completed -- join him in the set, the latter rocking room two while the Psychonauts tear a hole off the roof in the third room. The mix of styles should guarantee that most attendees are pleased, and you'll be able to find somewhere to relax and nod along to gorgeous melodies when your feet start hurting from pounding the dancefloor.

The Chisenhale Gallery's dramatic space is perfect for theatrical displays, such as the presentation of Tim Noble and Sue Webster's Neanderthals that was to launch their career. Flokert de Jong's current installation, Medusa's First Move: The Council, is utterly unexpected -- partly because he is unknown in the UK -- after a hard day's wandering through the potpourri of East End galleries, and completely mesmerising. The title takes its cue from Gericault's masterpiece The Raft of the Medusa, which told the scandalous story of a government vessel, the Medusa, that had foundered off the West African coast, leaving its crew to escape by raft, with only wine and meat on which to live. As with the former, some of the crew on de Jong's raft wear elaborate uniforms -- the ambiguous Council of the title? -- and the presence of skulls obviously suggests some have already drowned. But de Jong's version is also made of pretty blue and yellow squidgy polyurethane foam and the passengers are sat at a proper table under a dripping chandelier -- enjoying their last hours in a final burst of decadence. Now how many sinking governments in recent times does that remind you of?

NB: runs till Sun 15/05.

The Spitz is set to serve up a sweet helping of diversity once again with this bill -- a chance to experience not only the solo material of Gaudi aside from his impressive list of production credits, but also the ingenious trickery of Thomas Truax and the swirling electronic ambience of Red Leb (perhaps the aural equivalent of their similarly intoxicating namesake). Gaudi's dub-house is embroiled with global beats and samples and finished with subtle mechanical edges reminiscent of the likes of '90s trip-hop and house gurus Leftfield and the lighter side of Adamski. Truax, however, presents another side of the many-headed musical coin, pedalling anti-folk tales via musical instruments of his own invention. His set promises to be a something of a beatnik rock-musical presentation with a shade of the amateur melodramatics about it; but with all the sideshow appeal of Tiger Lilies and the instrumental eccentricities of Jimi Tenor there should be plenty to keep the punters enthralled.

Jackie Leven's shows are normally an intimate and engaging combination of stories from his past and his songs, weaving the stories together; sometimes in an unexpected way -- taking you from laughter to the brink of tears in a moment. For Jackie Leven Said he will be joined by the bestselling author Ian Rankin, telling a short story written especially for this collaboration, whilst Leven provides the soundtrack. Jackie Leven Said is a story about a successful London record producer going back to his home in Kirckaldy, Fife for his mother's funeral and to face unresolved issues with those he left behind.

Partly Parasol Unit's campaign to bring us interesting things from around the globe and part Artprojx's deepening of our understanding of visual arts consciousness, Adrian Searle will be in conversation with Michael Borremans. Following in the success of fellow Belgians de Keyser and Tuymans, Borremans is the subject of both his first exhibition -- titled The Performance -- in this country as well as the inaugural show at this new foundation for contemporary art. Unlike his fellow countrymen, his oeuvre partly takes its inspiration from films, hence the screening of Michael Anderson's 1966 The Quiller Memorandum, which stars George Segal, Alec Guinness and Max von Sydow. Borremans' painting seem to depict day-to-day life in that deadpan "Tuymanesque" way, but these quiet, pondering images seem to be waiting... almost in dread contemplation. Are they lost in their work, like we all seem to be these days or is this just excuse to move paint. What happens next? Maybe you can put it to the man himself...

NB: Michael Borremans' The Performance at Parasol Unit runs till 30/06. It will travel to the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin.

An evening charmingly conceived around "the childhood comfort or making something from scratch and taking it proudly home". On arrival, you'll be provided with all the gubbins needed to make your object (this week: a pipecleaner and wool cat) and it's a different project each week. Though, hopefully, not one of these. Oh there's music too -- from Max Tundra (Domino) and the peeps from Leaf, Accidental, Lumin and Nile-On. None of whom are adverse to a bit of sonic DIY hotch-potch jiggery pokery. Indeed Accidental boss Mathew Herbert himself has built a rather comfy career out of tweaking the sound of a munched apple or a scrunched Mickey D's carton. And, he's hardly the worst offender. Pictures made from glittered pasta, knitted puppets and beautiful bleeps and beats. Bless their cotton socks.

At the beginning of the '90s, Italian architect Benedetta Tagliabue met Spanish architect Enric Miralles. A few years later, Tagliabue had not only joined Miralles's studio, but become his partner in both business and life. The married duo behind EMBT Arquitectes soon became a kind of Latin Diller+Scofidio -- the perfect architectural couple, touring the academic world (for Tagliabue: London, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Vienna; for Miralles: a string of universities in the USA, including Columbia, Princeton, and Harvard, as well as schools of architecture in countries such as Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, and Mexico City) and finishing -- over and above their many projects in Spain -- schemes such as a meditation pavilion in Unazuki, a music school in Hamburg, and the City Hall in Utrecht. Their Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh had just gone on site when Miralles died, tragically young, from a brain tumour in July 2000. Deeply rooted in their contextual approach to design, the Parliament project is derived from its location and situation as a public building at the end of the Royal Mile, and rich in references to the history of the site. This pivotal role of context was the foundation for many of their endeavours (several of which were based on the design of their own house/office), and as the second lecture in the RIBA's series Capital Projects, Tagliabue will focus this talk on the building's relationship to the city of Edinburgh.

NB: for those archiflashers out there make sure you catch David Adjaye at the Design Museum (Wed 11/05), Alex Lifschutz at the Chelsea College of Art and Design (Thu 12/05) and Jean Nouvel at Union Chapel (Wed 25/05).

Austrian guitarist and electronic experimentalist Christian Fennesz is best known for his freeform ambient electric soundscapes and processed laptop melodic flutters. His ties with the Vienna-based record label Mego have seen him release numerous intricate, dense, multilayered sounds of treated guitar and synth work, creating stunning uncompromised electro-acoustic textures. Perfect examples are 2001's Endless Summer release -- an album of blissed-out processed electronic reflections on the Beach Boys -- and his more recent Venice album on Touch. Supporting Fennesz is globe trotting lo-fi musician John Chantler, whose compositions of found sounds, strumming guitars, ambience and percussion lead to beautiful sonic arrangements. Dialect -- the first UK-based artist on the eclectic and acclaimed Resonant label -- will also perform a live set of inventive and powerful electronic music.

Laurie Anderson is an international multi-media artist whose work encompasses installation, audio and video art in amazing narratives. Anderson's imagination was given full reign when she became the first artist-in-residence at American space agency NASA. Drawing on her recent research and travels, she created The End of the Moon. This travelogue is a narrative that meditates on the philosophy of time. Through the colourful prism of music, Anderson explores her personal experience of reality and her transient fantasies. The performance presents an intimate microcosm of American society, yet alludes to the wider picture of spirituality, consumerism and politics. Given the recent emphasis on spin-making soundbites during the UK elections, it will certainly strike a chord. Part of BITE: 05, The End of the Moon is the second in Anderson's trilogy of solo works and promises to follow on from the success of Happiness, during BITE: 03. It coincides with Anderson's participation in the first Artangel Longplayer Conversation, a celebration of Jem Finer's thousand-year digital music composition. A unique event.

NB: The End of the Moon runs for four nights from 18/05 to 21/05. There are very few tickets left so buy your tickets asap.

Caravaggio was a badboy -- a volatile, tortured rebel whose inventive paintings reflect both a troubled life and a love of the gutter. At the National Gallery, just 16 works exhibited in an eerie half light economically and dramatically document his final years. A period of intense creative activity followed Caravaggio's exile from Rome for murder as he sought redemption on the run from the threat of punishment by death. His odyssey took him via Naples, Malta and Sicily, creating complex and powerful depictions of religious narratives along the way. The innovative use of real people as models, most likely prostitutes and street kids, injected emotional honesty into sacred stories and established a modern, realist style. As an outsider, Caravaggio knew the underworld and skilfully shared it in paintings where light and shadow are combined in introspective, filmic compositions with homoerotic overtones. His shifting style reveals his state of mind -- a self portrait as a severed head reflects a preoccupation with guilt and death, and perhaps provides an indication of where his head was at the time of his early demise.

NB: runs till 22/05. Entry is timed and advance booking is strongly recommended.

If you cannot imagine what it would be like to grow up and live through Chile's bloody civil war, then let Machuca take you there. Set in '73 in Santiago, it follows the friendship of two 11-year-old boys -- middle-class Gonzalo Infante and Pedro Machuca, who lives in the nearby illegal shantytown. The boys have been brought together by the vision of Father McEnroe, a headmaster who wants to see the local shantytown's children educated in his private school. With President Allende's government on the verge of being overthrown and Pinochet's dictatorship looming, everyone is sucked into political unrest, even the school and the pigs donated to its farm. As a result their friendship is continually tested by fierce political divisions. Despite some of the acting and characters lacking passion, director Andres Wood's detailed recreation of the setting and sentiment of '70s Chile stays with you.

Nouvel delivers his work with a sense of mystic and showmanship. His architecture presents a preoccupation with the postmodern in a literary sense. Obfuscation, blurring of reality and simulation, his most renowned project, L'Institut du Monde Arabe, used the apertures of cameras as enlarged panels that respond to light changes to edit views of the surrounding townscape. His lecture on Wednesday promises to be full of intrigues as he applies his reading of cultural context with a highly personalised sense of design. Nouvel describes the 142 Agbar tower, the headquarters of Barcelona's water company, as a geyser rather than a skyscraper. It will be the city's latest landmark. Described as owing something to Gaudi, Nouvel cites his influences as drawing on the shapes of water formed whilst under pressure. Whether it can be compared to London's Gherkin is open to interpretation.

NB: this event will probably sell out this week so get your tickets fast. For those archiflashers out there make sure you catch David Adjaye at the Design Museum (Wed 11/05), Alex Lifschutz at the Chelsea College of Art and Design (Thu 12/05) and Benedetta Tagliabue at RIBA (Tue 17/05).

Osama The Hero explores isolation and violence in an English housing estate where the politics of fear have really taken hold. Come and see this tour de force by one of Britain's most exciting new playwrights. Dennis Kelly's passionate writing is vividly brought to life by the five actors through fast-paced and often funny dialogue and monologue, and a truly shocking and violent central scene. Kelly makes humour and horror work hand in hand, with the eccentric schoolboy, Gary, punished for his originality in a world where fitting in is an essential survival skill. During the course of the play each character's fears are laid bare, so that even though what they do is appalling we're asked to understand them. Despite the bleakness Osama The Hero offers some hope by the end, if we will only connect.

NB: Osama The Hero runs till 11/06. In repertory will be Jane Bodie's A Single Act.

Gregory Crewdson photographs memories of things that never happened. His images replicate what emerges when a child's mind edits the jumble of new and confusing personal experiences it encounters. As children, we unconsciously focus on unremarkable or inconsequential moments and freeze them out of context. As adults, these remembered moments become emblematic of our childhood. Thus, a grown-up might recall his sister turning her head toward the car window, without having any idea why she turned, or why he remembers that image when countless similar gestures have been forgotten. For most of us, such memories are precious because they are vivid and scarce, but for some, these frozen moments can be chilling mysteries, less emblematic than enigmatic. Children often do not understand what they are witnessing when they see their parents fight or feel unexpressed tensions in a room, but the scenes they recall might germinate in their subconscious and grow into nightmares that serve as clues to their adult personalities, fears and desires. Like a child trying to make sense of glimpses of banal, adult misery, Crewdson crafts cryptic, dark fairy tales. His primary series of photographs, Hover (1996 - 1997), Twilight (1998 - 2000) and Beneath the Roses (2002 - 2005), are loaded with cinematic references and filmed on Hollywood-scale sets with Hollywood-sized budgets. Yet what they depict are personal responses to moments too fleeting too remember and too overwhelming to forget.

Gregory Crewdson is currently exhibiting his new body of work Beneath the Roses at White Cube (till 18/05) and concurrently at Luhring Augustine in New York (till 18/06) and then at Gagosian in Los Angeles (from 21/05 till 01/07).

To read the interview click here.

If you go down to the woods today... Following on from their delightful full-length fantasia -- Sung Tongs -- Animal Collective join with '70s folk artist Vashti Bunyan on an EP that offers a looking-glass glimpse into an otherwordly kingdom florid with melody and invention. "It's You" is a beat-less call and response between Bunyan's whispered vocals and waves of barely distorted harp (an ethereal cousin to Cage's prepared piano), the singer's whispered words refracted back in a rush of strings, a gorgeous ebb and flow. The title track, "Prospect Hummer", continues in a similarly vein, an enchanting Doolittle nursery rhyme about a lonely cat whose "only friend is his food bowl", woodblock percussion, acoustic guitar and a docile quasi-house beat gently propelling Bunyan's rhymes and Avey Tare and Panda Bear's beautiful harmonies. The whole is reminiscent of Nobukazu Takemura's electro-acoustic wonderland narratives, at once instantly engaging yet pleasantly alien. Both Animal Collective and Vashti Bunyan are currently recording full-length works to be released later this year.

To buy Prospect Hummer online click here.

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 t