Following the almighty brouhaha following Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten's publication of 12 Muhammad cartoons (those pesky ones satirising the precise difficulty of visually representing the prophet), the international media has played an agile game of ping pong/hot potato/pass the buck with the topic. After months of heated outrage and frenetic insult hurling (interestingly, in the UK we elected to do this from the relative safely of the editorials rather than by reproducing the images -- as many other countries chose to do), French newspaper Charlie Hebdo issued a statement warning against Islamic "totalitarianism" (supported by celebrity exiles and those rather too familiar with the hanging threat of a fatwa -- Salman Rushdie being a notable signatory). Obviously self-censorship is a tricky issue -- and for those with half a brain, it's apparent that there is no happy resolution right around the corner. Still, if you have the stomach for a hardcore debate (or are happy to cower in the corner and observe the possible spontaneous combustion of a respected speaker) Beyond a Joke? Cartoons and Human Rights rather bravely decides to tackle the subject. Good luck to them that's mad enough...

NB: speakers include Dolan Cummings (Institute of Ideas), Aina Khan (Aina Khan Solicitors Partnership), Tony Lehrman (Institute of Jewish Policy Research), Peter Noorlander (Article 19) and Indarjit Singh (Radio 4 Broadcaster).

Peter Hallward, Professor of Philosophy at Middlesex's Centre for Research In Modern European Philosophy, will be speaking about creationism in Gilles Deleuze's work, with particular reference to a passage from Deleuze's essay Immanence: A Life (in which Deleuze sets out to rethink a form of empiricism that can adequately capture the relation of thought to life). The lecture will undoubtedly give listeners a sense of the principle leaning of his much-anticipated book Out Of This World: Deleuze And The Philosophy Of Creation. Hallward has in recent years emerged as one of the most challenging and individual thinkers working within the field of contemporary French thought (despite still being only in his 30s). He is perhaps best known for his pioneering work, as a translator, critic and tireless publicist, on the philosopher Alain Badiou, helping to bring Badiou's work, most deservedly, to the centre of contemporary philosophical debate. Anyone at the drawing symposium at Tate Britain two weekends ago, at which Badiou was speaking, can certainly testify to Hallward's fidelity to the event of creative thought, as he gave a most dazzling, completely spontaneous synopsis of Badiou's oeuvre. Hallward is also the author of Badiou: A Subject To Truth (2003) and Absolutely Postcolonial: Writing Between The Singular And The Specific (2001).

NB: this event is part of the series Provocations -- run in association with the Forum For European Philosophy -- in which leading thinkers discuss a piece of text that has special relevance / resonance for them.

Going out in London can often be a taxing experience; whether you're venturing out to the latest designer bar or a JD Weatherspoon with all the atmosphere of a '70s DHSS office, the chances are you'll be cramped, uncomfortable and still end up out of pocket. For those with the means the answer has always been the city's enviable array of private members clubs, where one can sink into a armchair, snifter of port in one hand, pipe in the other, all the time under the watchful gaze of some 18th-century Duke's portrait. Sadly, most of us don't have the means, but this Thursday, as a sop to the unwashed masses, one such club, 43 South Molton, will be throwing open the doors to its well appointed basement to the masses for a night of grimy beats, Brazilian electro funk, leftfield pop and riotous debauchery. For one night you too can imagine what it's like to be / date a premiership footballer and swap the Dog & Duck for a venue that comes complete with crystal stag's head trophies, whilst the hotly tipped likes of The Real Heat, North Of Ping Pong, Matthew !WOWOW! and John Power perform for their supper. Just don't get too used to it.

Bank Holidays -- they glimmer with excitement in the distance and then, when they arrive, you never seem to have anything arranged. Quite frankly, though, real Londoners live by the philosophy that there's always something fun to be sought out, so why bother to plan. For such die-hard city ner-do-wells, Tate Modern has the weekend wrapped up. It's all in aid of a major rehang in the gallery... and as the pieces are rearranged into newly themes zones, a number of famous faces will be waxing lyrical about their favourites. Speakers to look out for include Harry Hill (26/05 at 12:30pm), Malcolm McLaren (28/05 at 3pm), and DJ Spooky (27/05 at 7pm, who is also DJ-ing to the screening of the film Berlin, Symphony Of A City on 26/05 at 9pm).

Friday 26/05
The weekend starts with Futurist Friday (linked to the new Futurist wing) and the One Pound Turbo Market installation by Thai artist Surasi Kusolwong. Here, reams of kitsch Thai paraphernalia is on sale for, unsurprisingly, £1 -- in a mad arrangement supposedly akin to the floating markets of Bangkok. In the evening, the floating market becomes a cinema where Walther Ruttmann's experimental film is being screened.

Saturday 27/05
Banish ideas of Punch And Judy when you hear about the puppetry shenanigans scheduled for Saturday. Think more political satire than domestic squabbles and you'll get a better idea of Surreal Saturday's line-up. Jean Miro's puppets (the stars of the show) are "Grotesques" originally designed to lampoon Franco and his fascist regime in the show Mori El Merma! (a collaboration with Joan Baixas' theatre troupe La Claca). This time, Baixas uses them for a new production -- Merma Neverdies. In theory, it's the same ideas (roughly) with a contemporary twist. Being surreal, however, God only knows what that'll entail. Following this potential oddity is, rather appropriately, the evening screening of the "twenty-first century psychoanalytical, cinematic cabaret" Dreams That Money Can Buy, with music from The Real Tuesday Weld.

Sunday 28/05
If none of the above tickles your fancy, try getting your head round the re-staging of John Cage's Musicircus (originally performed in 1967), which is a fanfare for the Abstract Expressionist re-hang in the gallery on Sunday. There's a wonderfully overwhelming collection of electronica acts, avant-garde artists and classical performers all brought together for some general musical mayhem -- a random mix guaranteed to live up to the umbrella name for the day -- Abstract Sunday. There's also a screening that night of Borderline, accompanied by Courtney Pine.

Monday 29/05
The weekend concludes with Minimalist Monday, events inspired by the works displayed in the new Idea And Object wing. The three primary areas of the industrial, mathematical and the geometrical will be represented in a whole range of events, climaxing with ULTRA. Situated in the Turbine Hall, highlights include three 30-minute multimedia performances from the likes of Ryoji Ikeda, Alva Noto (aka Carsten Nicolai) and Robert Henke (aka Monolake). Both Ikeda and Nicolai have recently performed in London, but this will be a rare London outing for Henke. Expect large scale computer graphics and piercing sonic statements that'll explore the outer limits of sight and sound.

NB: UBS: The Long Weekend runs from 26/05 till 29/05 for the full programme click here.

For a luvvie extravaganza, make sure you catch one of the talks and advance screenings of Richard E Grant's semi-autobiographical film Wah-Wah (his directorial debut). Incredibly enthusiast about his new film (this really is his "baby"), expect REG to go off on thoroughly bizarre streams of consciousness about his childhood and regale listeners with hilarious anecdotes about the film's casting and production process. The film itself is a sweet coming-of-age tale, which, although it may not rock the cinema world, is a nostalgic colonial drama that boasts a stellar Brit line-up including Julie Walters, Celia Imrie, Emily Watson, Miranda Richardson and About A Boy's Nicholas Hoult. Dashing Irishman Gabriel Byrne plays the young protagonist's father -- part of the colonial old guard in '60s Swaziland, who turns from a harmless lush into a raging alcoholic after his wife's adulterous affair with his best friend. The domestic repercussions open his son's eyes to life's cruelties, which forms the crux of the film's narrative thrust. As British rule comes to an end, it?s not only boyhood innocence that vanishes but also those days of long, gin-soaked afternoons lounging on the lawn; amateur dramatics at the club; and ex-pat bed hopping.

NB: catch Richard E Grant for a special screening on 26/05 (5:30pm) at the Richmond Filmhouse, 27/05 (7pm) at the Greenwich Picturehouse and 29/05 (4pm) at the Gate Cinema. Wah Wah is released in London on 02/06.

The Memo Book is an incredibly dense 28 minutes of carefully composed sequences exploring memory, dreams, colour, space, sensuality and more. Organs, looped piano melodies and everyday noises such as a piece of cloth being torn or the crashing of waves accompany high-contrast images, often layered on top of one another, with gold, orange and red hues. Like much of Matthias Mueller's work, the rhythm of the editing is addictive, each sequence working in contrast to the next, giving his work a dream-like quality. Mueller is also a very versatile filmmaker, constructing entertaining and thought-provoking films using footage from '50s Hollywood movies in Home Stories, reconstructing a garishly blue-coloured fantasy of '60s childhood in Alpsee or exploring mortality in the red-coloured world of Pensao Globo.

NB: three extensive programmes (Fri 26/05 at 7pm, Sat 27/05 at 5pm and 7:30pm) of Muller's work will launch a major new book on the artist (Fri 26/05 at 7pm), featuring German and English text, and contributions from Mike Hoolboom, Scott MacDonald and Dirk Schaefer, among others, available at a special reduced rate of £12 throughout the weekend. The artist will also be present at all the screenings.

Porn in art can often be an excuse for (male) artists to churn out images of their favourite sexual fantasies, a feeble statement of their transgression of bourgeois niceties or a declaration of freedom of expression an easy shield against accusations of gratuity. Likewise porn has been an easy target for feminists, no-brainer evidence of the prevailing exploitation and victimhood of women and children. So how to update this well-trodden field of enquiry? Young Argentinean artist Juan Tessi's series of paintings, Thumbnail Gallery Post, takes an ambiguous look at contemporary porn websites. Focusing on the seduction of thumbnail images as the gateway to porn heaven or, more often than not, pop-up hell, his paintings frustratingly leave their narratives untold, satisfaction or disappointment an impossible click away. His album of good-looking young subjects at first glance seem to romanticise the genre -- no fat readers' wives here -- but their banally ecstatic expressions and the suggestion of sado-masochistic scenarios in which they remain eternally frozen linger in the mind long after the gallery visit. Tessi's strength lies less in a "pointing fingers" morality but in a questioning of the hollowness of contemporary fantasy and our hypocritical ambivalence towards sexual violence.

NB: runs till 27/05.

Paul Freud's portraits of the last Pope are unlikely ever to be hung in the Vatican. Singling out that moment where John Paul II gasped for enough breath to make his last speech to the world, Freud's paintings blasphemously acknowledge the Reality TV-style voyeurism with which the world followed the last Pope's physical demise. Both bathetic and sadistic, the series reveals Freud's schizophrenic fascination with, on the one hand, the existential drama of the Pope's fallibility and, on the other, with punishing the latter's extreme moral conservatism and intractability. This tension is reflected in Freud's technique: angst-ridden brushstrokes nod to the Velasquez-Bacon school of morbid painting, while the compulsion to serialise the image a la Warhol turns the Pope into just another inconsequential Pop Iidol.

NB: runs till 27/05. For those who missed the original private view, Andrew Mummery is hosting a second opening in the company of the artist on Thu 25/05 (6 - 8pm).

Insects are, in general, horrible things, strange otherworldly creatures that with very few exceptions (who could hate a bumble bee?) deserve to be expunged from the planet. Sadly they vastly outnumber us and when the last mutant relative of mankind finally slumps lifeless to the floor it will be some chitinous, many legged roach that will scurry over and feast on its cadaver. But it's not all doom and gloom: whilst we still just about have the upper hand, we can find plenty of cruel and unusual ways to use these beasts for our own amusement. This Saturday, for instance, the Wetland Centre in west London will host several leading leftfield and electronica artists such as Robyn Hitchcock and David Rotheberg, who will be using the tiny critters as artistic muses or as in the case of Warp's Mira Calix as an actual sound source. Either way it should provide a night of quality entertainment and another chance to lord it over our eventual rulers before it's too late.

NB: this concert is part of Pestival, the first international art festival that celebrates "insects in art and the art of being an insect" (runs from 27/05 till 04/06).

From the Tea For Two Cabaret decadence at sketch to chilly ice chic at Absolut Ice Bar, the Baronessa Ball is back with The Scarlet Express. In a scene over stuffed with cabaret and burlesque it is hard to find quality amongst the try-hards and the try-not-so-hards as every Tom, Dick and Sally gives it a go in the wild misapprehension that they are the next Suicide Girls tour, Dita von Teese or that their little group are the new Dadaists! Sadly for most of us there is a very definite art to looking great half naked and acting batty while constantly emitting an air of dignified decadence! The Baronessa knows how to pick acts (like Dusty Limits and Lady Grey Tease), venues (the Icebar has an actual "ice bar", yep, made of ice!), and themes (this time come as Emperesses, Grand Dukes, Ice Queens and Marlenes). So, this is not just a "whack on some fishnets" and "stick a feather in your hair" kinda do, this is special; think Narnia, Anna Karenina and Jack Frost. Not the most appropriate get up for the time of year -- you'll just have to get sipping on that ice cool vodka!

NB: doors open at 3pm, late lunch show starts 4:30pm, dinner show at 7:30pm and DJs and dancing till late.

Another bank holiday weekend must mean another Lost party. While the near standard line up of techno soldiers seems present and correct (Jeff Mills, Steve Bicknell, Oliver Ho) there does seem to be two things for us that make this one slightly special. First up is Sleeparchive, a name that's been thrown about in hushed tones by the electronic community for the best part of a year now. Released (as is always) with the minimum of fuss and hype and now revered to near legendary status, Sleeparchive is both an artist and a label. A discreet, private collection of introverted techno, doused in atmosphere and brimming with ideas. Some might claim this to be highly original work, others as a plundering of the genre's past, a sonic blueprint previously laid down by the likes of Plastikman. Whatever people think of the records, expect a propulsive, defiant live statement tonight. The other highlight for us comes in the form of a rare outing for Stasis. You can usually find him working behind the counter in Shoreditch's Smallfish Records. But this man's past history was an important and enjoyable addition to the British techno movement. Lost, but not forgotten.

Forget Da Vinci mania. Opus Dei has nothing on hysterical women, witch-hunt persecution and the fear of the fundamentalist next door. The chilling soul of religious fundamentalism is laid bare in Dominic Cooke's production of The Crucible. In Arthur Miller's portrait of the mechanics of Puritanical repression, the political edge is knife sharp and cuts to the core. Based on the terror of a Massachusetts community gripped by the vengeful wrath of Puritan law, 350 years melt away and glimpses of Bushite introspective politics appear to the keen eye. First audiences of the play in the 1950s found Miller's thinly veiled critique of McCarthyism in the self-righteous moral centre of the play. In a climate where American fundamentalist politics are at the heart of everyone's dinner party chatter, a new figurehead with megalomaniac fantasies seems to fit the bill.

NB: runs till 17/06.

The Moebius House, the Erasmus Bridge, the Mercedes-Benz Museum. As Ben van Berkel returns to London (where he received the AA diploma with honours in 1987 and worked as a teacher between 1996 and 1999, leading Diploma Unit 4, The Urban Studio) to give this talk, he can look back at almost 20 years of pushing architecture to its theoretical limits. Together with Caroline Bos, he set up Van Berkel & Bos in Amsterdam in 1988. Ten years later they established a new firm -- UN Studio (the United Network for urbanism, infrastructure and architecture) in order to make strategic collaborations with creative partners ranging from stylists through to building  consultants. The results have mainly been large-scale projects for Dutch cities, including a new museum for the city of Nijmegen and a restructuring of the centre of the city Arnhem, with van Berkel at the same time making a name for himself within the theoretical fields (his academic CV includes a post as visiting professor at Columbia University, visiting critic at Harvard University and teacher at Princeton University). The studio's 1999 publication Move contained three volumes, the titles of which might be clues to the themes of van Berkel's talk: Imagination, Techniques and Effects.

NB: Ben van Berkel talks to Brett Steele (director of the AA). Also see our features section for our review of Thames & Hudson's just released monograph on UN Studio. Also see our features section for a review of Thames & Hudson's newly released monograph on UN Studio.

Chicago-based art rock-noise trio volcano! have created a ripple of excitement since the release of their debut album Beautiful Seizure (Leaf). Their sound is characterised by a kinetic mix of disparate elements: syncopated percussive energy is intertwined within textured guitars; versatile vocals swerve between languid melodies and heart-wrenching rage. Described by The Wire as "an enjoyable kind of chaos," volcano! are, in many ways, a difficult initial listen; yet repeated and concentrated effort reveals definite structures and subtle, intricate melodies. Further listening reveals a band which seems intent on redefining music, rejecting the stifling barriers of genre and orthodox formalism. It is inevitable that the live arena will allow them to project their vision further. There should be ample support before the headline act provided by Swedish trio Tape and the Franco-American laptop duo Greg Davis and Sebastien Roux. This is the first London for volcano! and, within the comfortable confines of Time Out's Live Venue of the Year 2005 / 2006 and at a very reasonable price, we can assure you there can be no live music more highly recommended in London this week.

It must take some courage to embark on a five-year project, whatever your field. When the matter in hand is as complex, fleeting and transient as that which Frank Bock and Simon Vincenzi have grappled with since 2000, "clear conceptual origins" are indeed necessary too. Their Invisible Dances project finishes now after having involved over 50 people of startlingly varied artistic disciplines and physical dispositions. One of the main threads of enquiry has been to do with exploring different kinds of absence and states of perception. As such, sensory deprivation has been a key factor, resulting in work with blind performers and shows which "deafened the audience", as well as a "dance" that was only audible, and only via telephone. "Here, As If They Hadn't Been, As If They Are Not" is the Epilogue, and centres around the Anaxagoran notion that "everything that appears is an image of the invisible". This can all appear overwhelming and very serious, but we shouldn't be scared away: as Martha Fleming notes in her lovely piece at the bottom of this page, "Rigour can be tender".

NB: Invisible Dances runs for two nights on 30/05 and 31/05.

Best known, perhaps, as purveyors of the theme tune to TV medical drama Grey's Anatomy, Psapp is the nom-du-disc of Kentish singer / instrumentalist Galia Durant and German guitarist and engineering wiz Carim Classman. Already wowing them in the US, thanks to the aforementioned theme tune and a number of other high profile TV synchronisations, much is expected of Psapp, especially after they signed to cash rich independent Domino, late last year. Their second full album, The Only Thing I Ever Wanted, maintains the band's signature sound -- a giddy, skittering, electronic pop concoction, brimming with extraneous sounds sourced from toys, kitchen utensils, plucked violins and lord knows what else. Over the top, Durant's dulcet vocals are contrastingly kohl-eyed -- with more than a hint of Tracey Thorn in the lower register. Lyrically, a bittersweet affair, its highlights -- the sultry "King Of You", the insatiably rhythmic "Needle And Thread", the lulling "Hill Of Our Home" -- should keep the US TV fanbase sated, though it perhaps lacks the real melodic knockout blow to send Psapp into the international big leagues just yet.

Peter Fuller was the founder of Modern Painters magazine, art critic for the Sunday Telegraph and a strong voice, prematurely cut short, in the ongoing conversation of modern art. A series of five lectures are held annually in his memory. Luc Tuymans follows an impressive list of past speakers, including Roger Scruton, Howard Jacobson, Deanna Petherbridge, John Berger and Tal R. Tuymans' approach to painting is uncategorisable, yet every work inspires a similar string of adjectives: anxious, dislocated, bleak, ambivalent, cold, mundane, violent. His anaemic looking canvases carry a huge range of subject matter, from abstracts and still lives, to very particular statements, some only explained by their title (Gas Chamber, 1986). The Tate's 2004 Tuymans exhibition showed an artist in the momentum of a burgeoning career, and one with a talent for finding new ways to ask important questions of art and history. He spoke "the horror" of Belgium's colonial past in his series Mwana Kitoko -- Beautiful White Man, and articulated "the banality of evil" in an unnerving image of Nazi architect Albert Speer on a skiing holiday. A brilliant and articulate artist, Luc Tuymans will no doubt have interesting things to say.

Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland has always had the uncanny knack of catching a certain zeitgeist and preserving it for generations to follow. Generation X's neologism recognised the brutal futility of being over-educated and under-valued, whilst Microserfs centred on the so-called-life of computer programmers during the mid-'90s technology boom. As technology and popular culture has evolved JPod, to be published on June 5th, returns to the theme of the techno-geeks who exist in a limbo somewhere between corporate slavery and the warped world of popular culture and digital information. Coupland's novels exhibit a unique playfulness, with the inclusion of linguistic definitions, occasional pages in binary code and Warholian typographical experiments. With the increasing reliance on techno-culture and the apparent forthcoming demise of the book, JPod should not only please Coupland's legions of fans but also occupies a unique space somewhere between novel, website and textual artefact. Coupland's recent projects also include the film Souvenir Of Canada, an attempt to fathom the essence of Canadian-ness, which is scheduled for release this summer.

NB: on 08/06 (7pm) catch Will Self as he talks and reads from the The Book Of Dave.

Tim Crouch is a tall, bald man with a huge grin. He speaks in short sentences. Everything is very audible and well pronounced! And with exclamation marks! Ok, cut it out... The style may take some getting used to, but his is an instantly involving theatre. In this generous double bill, Crouch's company News From Nowhere presents the two pieces that have taken him around the world since 2003. Both involve a degree of exterior input which means no two shows are the same. In the older of the two, My Arm, the audience sees their own possessions drawn into the proceedings while in his latest Edinburgh hit, An Oak Tree, Crouch is joined on stage by a different performer each night. But don't expect a Rotozaza or for that matter anything more than a reference to the original housed in the same building, for this is work that centres on script and story. Some may find it disappointing that such an interesting process is not explored much, but Crouch's combination of emotionally charged storytelling and a pared-down, alarmingly deadpan delivery means he remains a master of the unexpected goosepimple.

NB: Tim Crouch performs at Tate Modern on both 02/06 and 03/06.

Tomas Saraceno is an Argentinean artist, architect and Utopian who uses cutting edge technology to investigate the spatial environment and to provide solutions for future ways of living. The Curve is currently home to cumulus, Saraceno's expansive video installation featuring a panoramic cloudscape projected onto the 80-metre-wide gallery wall. Shot on location at Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, where the largest salt lake in the world supplies a breathtaking and dramatic landscape, as part of Saraceno's ongoing Air-Port-City project, his cumulus project is designed to provide an experiential impression of life in the clouds. A ring of 32 cameras was floated on the lake to capture the skyscape, resulting in total immersion in the clouds, which speed across the atmosphere, billowing in and out of formation.

NB: runs till 11/07. On 03/07 catch Tomas Saraceno as he discusses his work. Saraceno's installation complements the Barbican's forthcoming Future City: Experiment And Utopia In Architecture 1956-2006 (runs from 15/06 to 17/09).

One characteristic of contemporary architecture that distinguishes it from Modernism is the shift from mechanical to informational technologies. The Futurists were fascinated by modes of transportation and sought their aesthetic metamorphosis into building. Today the Modern has been supplanted by the Modem: the machine rendered obsolete by the computer. The Internet is the manifestation of Borges' infinite library yet is latent with information overload. To stop Babel from dissolving into babble, the search engine is our librarian par excellence. Information can be readily retrieved to legitimise architectures: recent publications are festooned with as many numbers as letters. In UN Studio: Design Models, "the complete monograph of UN Studio's output", profiles of various Mercedes-Benz cars hint at where the automobile and architecture diverge: the side of a car is its front facade. Modernists used the plan view as the design generator; today the sectional view is privileged. Unlike FARMAX, this lavish tome has little in the way of statistics; numeracy resides in the myriad coordinates defining over 35 projects. Computer-aided Design (CAD) softwares allow for complex geometries but potentially remain a cad: giving currency to complexity and multiplicity doesn't necessarily improve the city. The design economies of the modernist box have lead to the morphological indulgence of the contemporary blob yet both forms remain generic. UN Studio value specificity and their sophisticated architectonic appears as an amalgam of the blob-box dialectic: an architecture of building blox.

To buy UN Studio: Design Models 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 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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