In architecture land, the idea of using digital technology and animated surfaces that change and interact with users is not a new one, but technology has a habit of moving forward in unexpected directions, and such ideas are rapidly becoming feasible. Ali Rahim's New York-based Contemporary Architecture Practice has built a brand for itself in the form of fluid, sinuous structures at the cutting edge of materials technology -- forms and structures impossible to build before the digital age; perhaps comparable to the work of Asymptote. It also looks as if Rahim will soon be emulating Asymptote by breaking through with some major built commissions, in particular two towers in Dubai; so far, his best-known built project has been the Reebok flagship store in Shanghai. Yet it's hard to tell from images of the interior whether you're looking at CGI at or the real thing -- materials research is an integral part of Rahim's work; walls and ceilings, windows and walls, all merge in apparently seamless curves.

NB: for those who cannot make Rahim's talk at the Bartlett there's a second chance to catch him at the AA on Thu 26/01 (6:30pm) where he'll also be signing copies of his book Catalytic Formations: Architecture And Digital Design 2005.

Nuit et brouillard was simultaneously broadcast on five channels in France in 1990 in response to a series of attacks on Jewish cemeteries in France, such was the political potency of the film. This astonishing documentary examining the Nazi concentration camp, from its architecture to the lives of the inmates and the way the SS entertained themselves, can be seen again 50 years after its release. Most of the documentary is made up of brilliantly edited original black and white footage and photographs from the camps. Alongside the constant stream of images are the concise, polemical words of concentration camp survivor Jean Cayrol, describing the workings of every aspect of the camps. Hanns Eisler's original score, which closely follows the rhythm of director Alain Resnais' editing, as well as surprising moments such as footage of an inmates' orchestra, add moments of light to the dark subject-matter. Accompanied by an illustrated lecture, the screening is also a book launch for Wallflower Press' new book on the international reception to the film.

NB: a panel discussion about the representation of the Holocaust in cinema and the moving image follows the lecture and screening at 8:45pm. Catch Alain Resnais' Hiroshima mon amour on Sun 29/01 (2pm) also at the Cine Lumiere.

As in White Noise, where Ori Gersht captured a memory through the attempt to capture something else, here it is as if the images from the series Liquidation disappear on looking, while the extreme silence and volume in his film The Forest juts through you to affect every sense. Like memory itself, the forest is multilayered, at once sinister and peaceful, playful and quiet. As trees fall, the sounds flurry through you while the camera speeds up and slows to question real and actual time. The disturbing sense of the unknown is captured as if you were there now, then or any other time. In the way that memory is a journey into the confines of the mind; the physical and psychological landscape can be constructed and reconstructed at the will of the individual, as a place where memory is more easily muted yet perhaps more disturbing in its tranquillity.

NB: Ori Gersht will discuss his exhibition with writer, curator and artist Jeremy Millar on Thu 25/01 (7pm). Also at the Photographers' Gallery is an exhibition by David Spero, who has used photography to document his visits to communities who live in eco-friendly, self-built settlements in the forest. Both exhibitions run till 05/02.

In a wet wintry whale-less London, we could all use something to cheer us up, and a birthday party could be just the ticket. Two pillars of the electronic music community, Sprawl and the Electronic Lounge, have been championing the offbeat and leftfield since the mid-'90s and this year marks a decade of innovation for Sprawl. To celebrate their 10th birthday they've teamed up for a night of sonic celebrations at the ICA, original home of the groundbreaking Electronic Lounge. Representing Sprawl will be founders and residents Iris Garrelfs and Douglas Benford (aka Si-cut.db), whilst the home team features the talents of Robin Rimbaud (aka Scanner) -- who set up Electronic Lounge 12 years ago -- and Leaf Record's Tony Morley.

A sure highlight for London's 2006 contemporary art calendar, Elmgreen & Dragset's much-anticipated exhibition opens this week at the Serpentine. Originating at the Bergen Kunsthall, Norway last year, The Welfare Show is comprised of a number of sculptures and installations through which the artists explore and challenge systems of welfare in the West, perceived or otherwise. Based in Berlin, Elmgreen & Dragset have been working together since the mid-'90s, producing art that consistently and cleverly provokes a reconsideration of power structures and public spaces.

Symposium @ The Goethe Institute (Friday 27/01 from 11am - 6pm)
If you're keen to hear more about the current state of welfare and its cultural implications, don't miss the Art Of Welfare, a symposium in conjunction with The Welfare Show. Present for the day's event will be a number of pre-eminent figures in the fields of contemporary art, politics, economics, and philosophy addressing issues around and possibilities for -- you guessed it -- art and welfare. Elmgreen & Dragset will take part in a panel discussion.

NB: The Welfare Show runs at the Serpentine till 26/02.

Michael Haneke's menacing thriller follows the actions of a successful Parisian talk-show host after he is sent anonymous tapes showing his home under surveillance. A family man, living with his young son and hi-flying wife in an idyllic well-to-do Paris suburb, Georges Laurent (Daniel Auteuil) appears to have done nothing to deserve such treatment. However, as more video tapes and childish drawings are delivered to his home and work, Georges is forced to re-examine his past. As a guilty, overpowering secret emerges from his childhood, his extreme and unhinged reactions quickly begin to subvert his victim status. In exposing Georges' guilty past, Haneke also cleverly develops a complex political metaphor, using the ethnicities of different characters to engage with modern-day France's relationship with its citizens of Algerian descent. Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche's acting talents are tested to the limit by the extraordinary actions of their characters, doing Haneke's disarming plot justice, and ultimately letting the director get away with making a bewilderingly open-ended film.

NB: Cache is released in London on 27/01.

Despite being home to the BBC and the greatest football team on earth, Shepherd's Bush has long been under-served in the nightlife department. Making a pretty lonely stand for decent music in the area for the last few years has been Ginglik, the converted toilets under Shepherd's Bush Green that plays host every Saturday to various electronic noiseniks. This Saturday's hosts Uncharted Audio welcome the quite possibly deranged, but almost certainly brilliant John Callaghan. Having made a name for himself with two quirky releases on Warp, Callaghan's live sets have become the thing of legend; fusing cabaret with techno and an astute pop sense, the end result is often something closer to performance art than the usual laptop affair. In support are new boys on the noise scene Regolith, whose glacial soundscapes and dense mixture of tones and drones could easily provide the soundtrack to geological mountain-on-mountain porn.

Cod psychogeographers might posit that Islington's unusual personality is to do with a number of factors -- the social history which led to it becoming a by-word for affluence, being teased into an unusual shape by the influx of chain pubs and weekend binge-drinkers, the ergonomic awkwardness of being trapped in between Mount Pleasant's rarefied aesthetes and the irony-studded concrete tundra of Old Street... Whatever, it boasts some great venues. This weekend the fantastic Soul Jazz crowd host another 100% Dynamite, a phenomenal blend of tunes thrown down by the more-then-able DJs on their roster and special guest Ashley Beedle, a man who is much more than "one of X-Press 2" (previous incarnations include the Ballistic Brothers, whose London Hooligan Soul album defined the rare groove/reggae/dark jazz/warm beats sound that the bulk of records that Soul Jazz sell in their Sounds Of The Universe shop either are inspired by, or initially helped inform) and whose sets are the stuff of legend. Carnival's months away, so head down to Angel and soak yourself in good times, funk, reggae, rocksteady, jungle and all the funky arrows in the Soul Jazz quivers.

It's beyond doubt that these days Fabric is firmly on the map for clubbing tourists, and most underground purists have long since turned their noses up at the crowd it attracts. What is also beyond dispute, however, is that somehow, amidst the revellers packed in like tinned sardines, the promoters of Fabric nights still manage to consistently host genuinely innovative line ups with cutting edge dance acts. Tonight is no exception, as in Room 2, Robert Hood and Jimmy Edgar headline. Techno don Hood inevitably hails from Detroit and, along with Jeff Mills and Mad Mike Banks was a founding member of the label that would prove integral to the development and reputation of recent Detroit Techno: Underground Resistance. Having now left the label, Hood continues to produce and play sublimely minimalist rhythms and will be joined by Edgar playing live. Edgar, signed to Warp, has been unleashing exciting material for a few years, culminating with the release of his first long player Color Strip. The blueprint for Edgar's style is evidently Detroit, but he has taken the sound and added more bouncy and playful elements. Billy Nasty will also be in attendance along with Ivan Smagghe and the usual residents... Expect a night of uncompromising quality.

Alain Resnais' first feature has a certain melancholy beauty and a script that haunts long after you've left the cinema. The narrative is not at all straightforward but this is what attracts the fans of scriptwriter Marguerite Duras. A love affair between a French actress on location for an antiwar film in Hiroshima and a Japanese architect revives painful memories of the war for both of them. His trauma is obvious from the title -- Hiroshima immediately evokes the agony of the world's collective memory of the end of WWII. Flashbacks show how the man's life has been shattered by what happened at Hiroshima. It's not in the title and it's nowhere near as agonisingly famous, but the tragedy in the woman's past took place in a town in Burgundy called Nevers. Again, flashbacks reveal how she was punished after the war for having an affair with a German soldier. Nevers mon amour just would not have made a great title in 1959 or even now, for are the wounds of the French Occupation as universally symbolic of human suffering as Hiroshima? It's definitely a better source of drama -- and this is after all a film with a storyline and characters, not a history lesson. This is a seriously art house film: it's French, it's Resnais and Duras, and it's difficult to follow as it's forever switching between scenes from the present and flashbacks. Love it or hate it but only judge after seeing it on the big screen.

NB: for Alain Resnais fans catch Nuit et brouillard on Wed 25/01 (6:30pm) also at the Cine Lumiere.

Once upon a time architecture was about buildings. Architecture today is, however, less about buildings and more about books. The four-dimensional aspirations of architecture have been squashed into the flat two-dimensional space formed between images and text. We all recognise Le Corbusier's chapel at Ronchamp for example but how many have actually visited it? The promenade architecturale is today a quick flick through a glossy mag. Le Corbusier, producer of more books than buildings, was as much a self-publicist marketing agent as he was an architect (David "AJ" follows a similar model). If a reader can now be legitimately recognised as a building user, is it really necessary for the architect to visit the site? At the AA on Tuesday, two "architext" whose reputations were forged on their printed matter are in conversation with Brett Steele. Rem Koolhaas, pioneer of the big book (S,M,L,XL; Harvard Design School Guide To Shopping; Mutations...) exchanges words with Peter Eisenman, producer of many a cryptic title (The End of the Classical: The End Of The Beginning, The End Of The End; Fin D'Ou T Hou S; Moving Arrows, Eros And Other Errors?). Book now? Indeed.

NB: this event will most likely sell out but it will be video cast in a another room -- contact venue for full details. On Wed 01/02 (7pm) catch the following talk, On Koolhaas And Eisenman: Two Views with Jeff Kipnis / Bob Somol (this is a follow up to the above talk).

For those of you who haven't yet seen Dan Flavin's retrospective at the Hayward, this event is the chance to kill two birds with one stone. Dan Graham, conceptual artist and architect of the Waterloo Sunset pavilion at the Hayward, and Brian Hatton, architectural critic and lecturer, will discuss the work of the great minimalist sculptor, who made a career out of transforming mass-produced, commercially available fluorescent lights into works of astonishing beauty. The exhibition is a landmark and this event promises to be unmissable. Graham -- friend and colleague of Flavin -- and Hatton are old mates with a mutual devotion to architecture, but don't think this will be a love-in. Sharp-witted Graham has an encyclopaedic knowledge of art, architecture and music, and is notorious for speaking his mind and dishing the dirt. His obsessive devotion to astrology and wicked sense of humour will undoubtedly offer up some unorthodox views on Flavin's work and life.

NB: the Dan Flavin retrospective runs at the Hayward Gallery till 02/04.

South Korean film has, internationally, been slowly building a loyal and progressively more mainstream audience in the past few years, perhaps culminating in the awarding of the second highest prize at Cannes to director Park Chan-wook for his story of kidnap and revenge in 2003's Oldboy. This, together with a lot of the country's cinematic output, showed that the Asian country was able to offer more than just extreme gore violence but also sensitive character portrayals and fully developed plots (ok, normally still with a fair amount of violence!). To tie in with the release of Kim Ji-won's A Bittersweet Life the ICA is offering a feast for the enthusiast with no less than seven films being shown over the coming few weeks.

A Bittersweet Life
On general release this is a brutal tale of mob terror that is intertwined with a network of emotions and desires. Stylishly filmed, presenting a sleek, dangerous, violently subverted version of modern Korean urbanity, the film has been praised by critics and shows that thrillers can be emotionally harnessing and unformulaic, despite Hollywood's best efforts to prove otherwise. (Screens at the ICA till 16/02.)

Sympathy For Mr Vengeance
Part one to Oldboy's part two of Chan-wook's "thematic trilogy" will be shown for those who missed this masterpiece. The destructive nature of revenge is investigated, in this case, when, in order to pay for his sister's kidney transplant, a deaf-dumb factory worker kidnaps his boss' daughter. This Thursday the final part of the trilogy will be projected in the form of Lady Vengeance (26/01). The film is beautifully shot in stark contrast to the story of the revenge of a wrongly imprisoned woman. (Oldboy screens at the ICA from 25/01 till 02/02.)

Also showing: 1999's Tell Me Something (hardcore gore!); Memories Of Murder (real-life crime!); Ji-won's A Tale Of Two Sisters (scary horror!).

NB: Brilliant Korea runs till 02/02.

An evening of narrative street dance by two of the UK's hottest young dance companies. If you missed their premiere at last year's Breakin' Convention, here is your chance to see the full blown version of Impact Dance's ecstatic Underworld show, a high energy performance combining street, hip-hop, jazz and contemporary dance. Choreographer Hakeem Onibudo was inspired by the underworld and created a universe full of vampire and werewolf clans as a metaphor for discrimination and betrayal. The company includes some of the most amazing and sexy performers on the circuit. ZooNation presents the world premiere of Into The Hoods, a piece drawing on the fairy tale's themes and inspired by Steven Sondheim's musical Into The Woods. When not performing with ZooNation, the professional dancers from Director Kate Prince's crew perform internationally with Jamelia, Black Eyed Peas, 50 Cent, Beyonce and on tour with Bounce.

NB: related workshops take place at Sadler's Wells on Sat 04/02 (11am - 12:30pm) with ZooNation and on Sat 04/02 (1pm - 2:30pm) with Impact Dance. For an insight into the work come prepared for an athletic and creative experience exploring choreographic concepts and ideas with the company dancers. Dance experience required (not suitable for beginners).

Habitually labelled as an indie-rock "supergroup", Canadian band Broken Social Scene are perhaps best described as the creation of core members Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, two veteran indie performers who make music with their friends who happen to include members of Stars, Do Make Say Think and The Dears among others. The band is technically a collective of about 15 members and this range of contribution is reflected in their utterly eclectic sound. 2002 album You Forgot It In People was a critically acclaimed word of mouth indie classic and their new self-titled album is equally as compelling. Songs range from the meandering "Bandwitch" to the pure Pavement / Built To Spill-esque indie-rock drive of future single "Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day)". It's music that seems to transcend particular detail and is best described as being purely powerful and affecting. The band is renowned for "jamming out" during their gigs; whereas this can often be annoying, it should be interesting to hear the individual nuances of their sound. Their rise to ascendency is apparent, the hype is tangible and this gig has moved venues twice to accommodate the demand; this is an ideal opportunity to see them before they really engage the mainstream.

Architects have long struggled with representations of the relationship between Time and Place. Some of the great masters of film such as Jacques Tati successfully explore architecture and narrative; his satirical but seductive take on Modernism portrayed in the set for Playtime was a masterful construction with its complimentary narrative. Pascal Schoening, who has been an AA Unit Master since 1983, has constructed an installation that takes the form of a cinematic house, constructed of glass, and a sequence of projections. The house aims to create a sense of liberation and openness through dematerialising solid space, whilst at the same time playing on our experience of home and cities. The resulting technical and poetic synergy captivates and inspires while reminding us that emotion can be a most potent building material. Filmmakers often lavish remarkable levels of detail on the definition of the environment inhabited by the protagonist and their desires. Studying film as an architect cannot help but examine the unique aspects of place created by the protagonist's journey. The precisions of light, sound, colour, texture, movement of camera and actor are choreographed to give a very specific definition of place. The work of Schoening's Diploma Unit 3 defines this cinematic and narrative condition and marries it with spatial and technical requirements in order to create architecture. Beyond emotion it will be interesting to delve into the premise of the making of the cinematic space and ask what came first: the narrative, the spatial and technical requirements or a set of stylistic devices.

NB: runs till 10/02.

In tandem with BBC4's self-explanatory Folk Britannia documentary series, the Barbican is staging a weekend of themed, folk-related evenings, with the usual ephemeral events (Nick Drake, Vashti Bunyan and Fairport Convention producer Joe Boyd gives a free talk before this concert at 4pm) and there's even an accompanying CD, Strange Folk, released on the appropriately named Albion records. Even without the extras, Into The Mystic will have UK folk aficionados drooling. Topping the bill is Bert Jansch, veteran of the early-'60s folk boom and, along with notable absentee Davey Graham, finger-picked acoustic guitar revolutionary of the first water. Bert's knuckle-knotting technique is still a thing of wonder to behold, while his 63 years have finally caught up with the ancient, smoke'n'tar voice he was apparently born with. That being said, many will rush to genuflect at the feet of elusive, Devendra Banhart-endorsed, ageless '60s music legend Vashti Bunyan, who makes a rare outing in support of her recent Lookaftering album (FatCat) -- the belated, yet eerily au courant follow-up to her 1970 debut, no less! The Incredible String Band's still-vivacious Mike Heron and two of contemporary UK folk's more acute solo acts round out a fine bill on what promises to be an evening of intimate, homespun transcendence.

Carol Rhodes is the kind of artist who produces no more than five paintings a year. She does not mess around. The paintings are exclusive, precise and planned to detail. The oil on the MDF panels appears to be not only dry but also dusty. Entering the gallery from trendy Shoreditch there is something very alluring about dwelling in these landscapes. But behold, there is more than meets the eye. Why is the river all black on such a colourful day? Why are there only sand dunes and no signs of people and activities near the red house? Of course the discreetly twisted angle of vision makes it ever so more interesting. Arabesques and surfaced patterns beautifully line up. Titles are scarce with information -- Town, Black River, Flood Area -- but we know Rhodes is based in Glasgow. For the exhibition, private collectors in London, LA and NY have kindly lent out paintings from 2005 and 2004. This means that there is only one painting for sale. And, for the first time, Rhodes exhibits a sketch drawing for a painting.

NB: runs till 11/02.

Very often, it is those perfect frozen moments in life that induce a sort of lurching queasinesss that we remember forever, though these are not the moments we would like to recall in such vivid detail. Charlie White's photographs seem to encapsulate these moments with hideous precision, inducing that peculiar sick feeling you get when you remember something horrible you did in primary school that has remained thus far a secret. Not surprisingly, White claims to have drawn a great deal of his inspiration from pornography, and although his images are far from being explicitly sexual, it is the explicit humanity that tends to be the source of that lingering discomfort that follows you out of the gallery. In his current exhibition Everything Is American, White generates a new language of iconography, borrowing heavily and in equal parts from the pornographic and the iconic. The result is a series of theatrical prints with a sometimes not-so-subtle religious overtone that engage the most explicit and gratuitous aspects of Americana; war, sport, sex and crime. With subjects ranging in content from the Manson Family to David and Goliath, White manages in a handful of images to capture the wanton perfection that blurs the line between divinity and must-see-TV. (Runs till 25/02.)

NB: for those Flashers in NYC catch Charlie White's concurrent show at Andrea Rosen Gallery (till 18/02).

Hailing from Tijuana, Mexico, and a former member of the Tijuana-based Nortec Collective of electronic musicians and artists, Murcof aka Fernando Corona creates recordings of a sublime depth and resonance, charting a line between Arvo Part, Henryk Gorecki through contemporary electronic. Since the release of Martes (2002), Murcof's work has been widely exposed to a wider audience, with his music accompanying fashion wide boy Alexander McQueen and the Ballet Boyz at Sadlers Wells, remixes for Kronos Quartet and Miles Davis, as well as being nominated as a "Global Visionary" by Planet magazine. Most recently he relocated to Barcelona and released Remembranza on the The Leaf Label.

To read the interview 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 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.

If you want to tell us about an upcoming event please do so by sending an email to: events@kultureflash.net. We receive many emails and thus please realise that sadly we cannot reply to all of them. Every single email receives attention and we will contact you if we need anything further. Please note that KultureFlash is not a listings e-zine and we do not receive any payment from venues, artists, managers or promoters.

Please send all press releases, invites, books and CDs to:

KultureFlash Ltd.
52 Cranmer Court
Whitehead's Grove
London SW3 3HW