The London Architecture Biennale has collided head-on with Architecture Week this year. The Biennale is bigger and better than its predecessor in 2004 and stretches from Southwark to Clerkenwell via the Millennium Bridge. On Sunday the architectural festivities comes to an end.

With so much to see and do, it's impossible to pick a "best of". Below are some events that caught our eye...

Future City Experiment And Utopia In Architecture 1956 - 2006
Runs till 17/09
Archigram weren't the only dreamers of utopia, you know. 50 years of radical architectural thinking; a short history of the future.

Alex Lifschutz: South Bank Tour
Wed 21/06 (6 - 7:30pm)
Alex Lifschutz never fails to entertain, and knows his stamping ground well -- the Golden Jubilee bridges and the OXO Tower are both his. (Includes free champagne, apparently!)

Maxwell Hutchinson: Pub And Churches Crawl
Wed 21/06 (6:30pm)
The week just wouldn't be complete without former RIBA President Maxwell Hutchinson guiding you round his favourite hostelries. And his favourite churches, of course.

The Borough Market Feast
Thu 22/06 (8 - 11:30pm)
Talking of the market... what better reason to come south of the river (unless you already live there) than a slap-up archifeast from top chef Tomasina Miers.

Magnificent Obsession: Frank Lloyd Wright's Buildings And Legacy In Japan
Sun 25/06 (12 - 2pm)
Frank Lloyd Wright's American work is well known; his work in Japan much less so. A chance to catch the director's cut of this new documentary, plus Q&A with the directors.

Modern Architour Bus
Sun 25/06 (1 - 5pm)
We don't do open top bus tours do we, as they're for tourists. All aboard for this notable exception.

World's Biggest Pecha Kucha
Sun 25/06 (7:30pm)
A stellar cast of architectural talent hangs out for the chance to show 20 slides for 20 seconds each (this is mad, surely?). Speakers include Rem Koolhaas, Will Alsop and Thomas Heatherwick among many, all for a very short time, presumably.

NB: the London Architecture Biennale and Architecture Week 2006 both run till 25/06.

What are film schools for? Can you learn to be a filmmaker, or do you have to be born one? Originating in the Communist Eastern Bloc, and refined in the West, does the film school model still have relevance? Has the wide availability of easy technology such as DV and computer editing programs, as well as the wealth of guerrilla filmmaking tips turned us all into DIY movie moguls? Well, not completely. Quentin Tarantino may not have gone to film school -- but directors Mike Leigh (Vera Drake) and Michael Mann (Heat, Collateral, Miami Vice), DoPs Tak Fujimoto (Badlands, Silence Of The Lambs) and Roger Pratt (Harry Potter, Brazil) did, as well as dramatist Arnold Wesker, Danny Huston (The Proposition), and Franc Roddam (Quadrophenia) -- and all to the London Film School. As LFS celebrates its 50th anniversary, and looks ahead to training the next generation of filmmakers, the panel, including Leigh and Ben Gibson (film producer and LFS head) among others, will argue the way forward for film schools in the 21st century.

NB: this debate has been programmed in conjunction with the A Tradition Of Innovation: The London Film School season (runs till 30/0).

According to the author and journalist Stephen O'Shea, history is too important to be left to the professionals. Instead, the self appointed "accidental historian" attempts to reconstruct the past with his vivid prose in the hope of cultivating our memories. Having already walked in the footsteps of those who fought in WWI and chronicled the life and death of the Cathar movement, he has now turned his attention to the origins of the conflicts between Christians and Muslims as well as their once peaceful coexistence. As part of the British Museum's Middle East Now season, he will enlighten us with a reading from Sea Of Faith: Islam and Christianity In The Medieval Mediterranean World. He will then lead a discussion about the intricacies of the shared history of Islam and Christianity with Robert Irwin, author of The Middle East In The Middle Ages, The Arabian Nights: A Companion and Islamic Art, and Inayat Bunglawala, media secretary for the Muslim Council Of Britain. Perhaps a fresh look at the past might offer a timely perspective on current headlines.

Greenwich and Docklands Festival is an unmissable celebration of dance and performance, with four days of spectacular outdoor events from around the world. Each event is a highlight! On Thursday, France's Transe Express premiere a new work. It involves acrobats, musicians and a crane and has to be seen to be believed. On Friday at the Royal Naval College, just as the sun sets, don't miss Il Cielo che Danza (Dancing Sky) -- an extravaganza of light with the College as a canvas from Italy's Studio Festi, who contributed to the opening of the Turin Winter Olympics. On Saturday, Canary Wharf is transformed into a series of stages for Dancing City -- a day of outdoor aerial work, including new commissions from the UK's Candoco and Australia's Strange Fruit. The fun continues with a street parade, more light-filled evening events and the Festival's 10th Birthday party on Sunday.

NB: the Greenwich + Docklands Festivals run from 22/06 till 25/06.

London-based Leafcutter John (John Burton) has been setting grounds in the experimental music scene since the late '90s. The Forest And The Sea is John's fourth full-length album and his first on Staubgold (he has previously released on Planet-Mu). His new project is a song cycle in which he produces seamless transitions between processed electronics, traditional instrumentation, songwriting and folk music. His live performance will feature Alice Grant and Simon Bookish on backing vocals. This will be the official UK launch of the album, out this week. Described as "kooky and spooky" by the NME -- or compared to a dead Kate Bush in hell! -- the UK singer-songwriter Catherine Anne Davies is rooted in the dark sides of folk, blending gothic blues, sultry moods and twisted melodies. She has yet to release her first LP but has made an impression through subterranean press and online musicosphere MySpace with her recent EP Long Day. Additional support will come from Nitin Sawhney's collaborator Tina Grace.

NB: before the concert catch an exclusive Q&A with legendary producer, UFO Club founder and first Pink Floyd single producer, Joe Boyd, famous for his support of icon folk figures such as The Incredible String Band, Nick Drake, John Martyn and more. He will present his new book White Bicycles: Making Music In The 1960s and will follow with a special DJ set.

His recent Made In Menorca album for Soul Jazz has been one of the highlights of 2006 so far. Rich, lambent melodies snapped to smart, uptempo drum programming. It's a masterclass in creating idea-filled, mood-setting dance music. So Rekid's debut live performance should be something of a treat in the surround sound system that is Plastic People. Maximal house music with a serrated edge. Joining him is Secondo, or Radovan Scasascia to his mum. As well as recording ambient interludes as AM/PM, he also runs the superlative Dreck Records, responsible for re-editing disco to macroscopic levels through a series of excellent 12"s. Expect tight edits and hard drives.

For those who think George Bataille is merely some French ponce pornographer interested only in the juncture of sex and eggs, try reading his The Solar Anus or The Big Toe to get a true sense of his instinct for the extreme as a means of disrupting conventional binary positions and pushing forward new ways of thinking... Don't forget that uber-philosopher Jacques Derrida's idea of a delimited economy owes much to Bataille's "Notion of Expenditure", not to mention his method of seeking the smallest, most ignored point as a position of weakness in which to apply pressure. Does this all sound like unpragmatic French thinking? It gets worse, for two years Bataille, between 1929 and 1930, published an art journal, Documents; its idiosyncratic thinking is the base inspiration for the Hayward's current show Undercover Surrealism. Perhaps the exhibition's curator, and art historian, Dawn Ades, together with Christopher Green from the Courtauld, and Dennis Hollier and Rosalind Krauss, both of October fame, amongst others, can put this all into contemporary perspective. The Picassos that are at the centre of the show, and the only artist to whom Bataille devoted a whole issue, is worth the price of admission alone.

NB: the symposium is divided into two parts. Part one is held at the Hayward (5:30 - 8:30pm) and the second at the Courtauld (10am ? 6pm). Reservations are essential -- call 0870.169.1000 to register.

The long overdue collaboration between Paris and London's two most intellectually ambitious film magazines, Vertigo and Cahier du cinema, has finally come together with a series of talks, paired screenings, Q&As and UK premieres. At the round table discussions will be writers including Iain Sinclair, film historian Ian Christie and critic Jonathan Romney, and filmmakers including Sally Potter (Yes), the multi-talented Mathieu Amalric and Emmanuel Bourdieu as well as editors from both the magazines. The subjects discussed will include how contemporary cinema represents global cultures, the effect of experimental film on mainstream cinema and the role of publications in promoting a diverse range of films.

There are many highlights in the film programme, which is an unusual combination of recent British films paired with newer work from France. The UK premiere of Xavier Beauvois' critically acclaimed police drama Le petit lieutenant and Amalric's Le stade de Wimbledon, both featuring Q&As with the directors, will be the best chance to engage with the latest goings on in French cinema. The most exciting screening of British work is arguably the France-based Chris Marker's 55 minute essay-documentary The Case Of The Grinning Cat, introduced by the maverick film critic and writer Chris Darke. Chris Petit and Sinclair's London Orbital documentary, including a Q&A with the writer, is a very close second.

NB: Crossing Borders runs from 23/06 till 29/06.

Unit 17 at The Bartlett is run by Niall McLaughlin and Yeoryia Manolopoulou, and deals with "Unreal Constructions" -- architectural schemes that are "imaginary or dreamlike, difficult to believe". A quick look at their former student Johan Berglund's fantastic (in all senses of the word) project The Royal Victoria Colourworks from last year, about "the point where ground meets water; metaphorically as well as physically, and the psychological power of the void", gives one a certain notion of what goes on inside their studio. This is architecture that wants to be poetry, architecture as advanced spatial investigation, architecture that's won medals, awards and fellowships. Not all students are as talented as Berglund, of course, but seeing that Unit 17 is one out of 21 studios (one of which, Adapting RED, is run by CJ Lim; another, City Within A City, by Jonathan Hill; a third, House For Erotomanes, by Neil Spiller), there's a lot to expect from this year's annual celebration of student work at the Bartlett. Expect the bizarre, exotic and unusual as more than 450 students show "drawings, models, devices, texts, animations and installations" -- several of which could probably be filed under "unreal".

NB: The Bartlett Summer Show 2006 runs till 01/07.

If you like the idea of going to an Autechre gig but are worried that the occasional melody might sneak its way through the layers of digital noise, help is at hand in the form of visiting Americans Phoenicia and Otto Von Schirach. Both acts made their name on the influential electronica imprint Schematic with heavily edited, processed, chopped and otherwise mangled takes on the electro blueprint that sound like Venetian Snares getting jiggy with 2 Live Crew. Slightly more tuneful but no less fierce are the night's other guests, Touchin' Bass boss Andrea Parker and the ever reliable Rob Hall from the reclusive Manchester-based Skam label. It's been a hefty five years since Phoenicia last played on these shores at Warp's legendary Nesh night, so expect a club full of dedicated noise enthusiasts and some very confused looking venue staff wondering what has happened to the club's usual psychedelic trance nonsense.

Industrial music is changing. And it seems that this is the month for exploring the limitless wellspring of new uses for thrash-metal. Ragga, drum and bass, techno, hardcore and all of its digital offshoots have converged on the unlikely territory that once belonged to the world's Skinny Puppys and Psychic TVs. The emergence of these new hybrids brings with it a type of melodic noise that oscilates from the chaotic beatscape to the melodic and all powerful pop-hook. Perhaps still requiring something of a discerning ear, this strange new mix of maths, metal and music is being created by some of the most interesting musicians working today. At Electrowerks this weekend, Ammunition 2 sets up a slick looking cross-section of all conspiring varieties of musical dysfunction and the musicians who love them. Line up includes the prodigal Canadian Venetian Snares with Milanese, Luke Vibert, Ed Lawes, hardcore junglist Bizzy B, gabber-DJ Shitmat, Boxcutter and Chevron -- to name but a few. This will not be a quiet night out, so be prepared.

NB: this all nighter celebrates the 100th album release from Planet Mu.

FASTER THAN SOUND
Bentwaters Airbase, Suffolk
Fri 23/06 and Sat 24/06
Previously used for the set of Channel 4's flop reality TV show Space Cadets, Bentwaters Airbase is being put to better use for Faster Than Sound, a two day festival bringing together an eclectic range of electronic musicians. From the junglist leanings of Venetian Snares and Shitmat to the academic exploration of University of East Anglia's Electroacoustic Studios, all sonic extremities are covered. Friday sees a rare performance from Goodiepal and Alexander's Annexe, while Saturday's event hosts the bulk of the line up. Military-grade music with knobs on.

To signify dubstep's burgeoning popularity, the established Forward night moves westbound from its humble home at Shoreditch's dark Plastic People to central London's shiny The End for this one off special. Spread over two rooms, the lounge pays host to the past, whilst the main room looks to the future. The likes of Horsepower, Hatcha and Menta remind us of the origins of this newest of genres. Expect sub, kick and silence, plenty of silence. In the main room, though, a plethora of new school talent present their own re-wirings and hacks. From Kode9's epic letterbox excursions to Digital Mystikz' dub-heavy skank. The next-version of dubstep's operating system is being written as we speak.

The New Brutalists consists of photographic works and a five-screen video installation created from footage the Wilsons recorded during a two-month residency with the Sofa Gallery and the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. Erewhon (2004) takes its name from a satirical novel by Samuel Butler and is a haunting journey through a once functioning mining town and a recently vacated sanatorium in the South Island, New Zealand. Interspersed with extended shots of abandoned buildings are lingering scenes re-enacting a young women's exercise class from the time of the WWI. The five screens of the installation, positioned to mimic architectural structures from the film, engulf you amongst young women around a gymnasium. Dressed in early-20th-century leotards and over-the-knee socks, they hold acrobatic poses for lengths of time, which are then matched back to the quiet whistling of farm country. Their firmly controlled bodies hark back to a time in New Zealand following WWI when the country's male population was greatly decreased, prompting the government to develop eugenics policies. There is a darker side to these policies, beyond pushing many young women into obsessive fitness routines, which this work successfully conveys.

NB: runs till 24/07. Before the Lisson, Erewhon was exhibited at 303 Gallery in New York and the Blaffer Gallery in Houston.

Dutch-born artist Theo Jansen has come over all Darwinesque. Through a delicate balance of computer wiz technology and sound biological principles Jansen has taken on the role of a prosthetic Darwin figure, engineering a species of beach animals, or Strandbeesten (to use the Dutch term). Fear not, the terror of Jurassic Park has not been realised on a Dutch beach near you. The beasts' bodily make up is created from thousands of yellow electricity tubes. As yet we do not think the animals are dangerous. Jansen envisages a time when his creatures will freely roam the Dutch coastline. Their multiple legs are engineered to walk on wet sand and their light bodies move with the currents of the wind. The Dutch pragmatism seems inherent in Jansen's vocabulary in the poetic balance between nature and artifice that make his creations possible. Using the component parts of the electrical industry he hints at the vestiges of an outdated power source, remodelled into a technology that is fuelled by wind power. His sculptural forms exist in a balance between controlled factors and the chance, uncooperative nature of the weather. See how these creatures fare in a city environment as for the first time they walk through Trafalgar Square. It should be unmissable!

NB: the "Beach Animals" will be on show in Trafalgar Square from 24/06 till 27/06 (11am - 9pm daily), in St James's Park from 28/06 till 02/07 (11am - 9pm daily) and finally at the ICA Theatre from 04/07 till 16/07 (12 - 7:30pm daily). You can also catch a retrospective of the early work that lead to the creation of the Strandbeesten at the ICA's Digital Studio that runs from 28/06 till 30/07.

It's a constant wonder that in a city the size of London we so often constrain ourselves to tiny little territories, as though the metropolis was in fact just small pockets of activity connected by the Tube. Whilst the likes of Shoreditch have their charms, this weekend why not don your pith hat (the colonial explorer look is so now) and try somewhere different, somewhere like Lambeth. Now you could be mistaken for thinking Lambeth was abolished along with the GLC, so rarely is it mentioned in our dispatches from the cultural frontline, but we checked and it's still there and this weekend plays host to the Mother Of All Parties, a biannual benefit night for the wonderful Beaconsfield. And if the thought of trying somewhere new and helping a good cause is not enough to sway you then consider the eclectic and electric line up that features live electronica, punk, film showings and performance art from the likes of Spring Heel Jack, The Fallen Leaves, Sanda Kolar and Resonance FM DJs.

With London in the grip of its annual blink and you'll miss it heatwave, clubs like Cargo with outdoor spaces become increasingly attractive; if they go to the bother of providing some half decent music to dribble beer and burger sauce down our tops too then all the better. If, again like Cargo, they go one better and actually put on a line-up that includes some of Ninja Tune's latest stars then they may even tempt a fair few people in from the courtyard to shuffle about in the dark. This Saturday DJ Vadim's One Self project headlines the show at the debut Soundcrash event. Having toured the world promoting their debut LP they have perfected the art of pleasing the crowd and should be able to coax a few sweaty punters to throw their hands in the air like they just don't care. Also playing on the night is LA based producer Daedelus, a kind of West Coast Prefuse 73 and DJ Food, who is consistently one of the most entertaining record spinners out there, able to switch from S Club 7 bootleg tomfoolery to straight up underground bangers with nary a seam in sight.

Picasso loved Le Douanier Rousseau and Ben Nicholson the drawings of Alfred Wallis -- you think they know something we don't? The notion of the Outsider seems to be a modern one; perhaps it's an emotional split from the more intellectual Modernist, or maybe the Outsider's intense, charged emotion appealed to those "cool" Modernists. Whatever the case, and despite certain irrational complaints, artist Jon Thompson has tried to bring these seemingly disparate artistic intelligences back together. Hence, Guston, Picabia, Basquiat and, most convincingly, Jim Nutt face-off against outsiders like Henry Darger, Adolf Woelfli and Joseph Elmer Yoakum; even local East End girl Madge Gill gets a space to herself. The appeal is really the intensity of these Art Bruts, the detail paid to each part of the canvas, the unhierarchical sense of composition and inventive ways to tell tales. Agree or disagree with his core concept, Thompson has brought together a visually sumptuous collection of artworks, and fitted in some outstanding Modernists too. Today, in our ironic and knowing times, the eccentric honesty of these artists stands out.

NB: runs till 25/06.

In this lecture / recital two major Modernist figures of the early 20th century, Schoenberg and Kandinsky, are examined in order to see how abstract art may have been conceived. Devised by Tate Modern in conjunction with its Kandinsky exhibition and held in the magnificent St Paul's Cathedral, the pieces to be played by the Rocca Quartet and Timothy End (piano) are those that were heard by Kandinsky at a Munich concert in 1911 -- Schoenberg's String Quartet no. 2, op. 10, Three Piano Pieces, op.11 and Six Little Piano Pieces, op. 19 -- in a stage of his compositional development where he was breaking down the standard, tonal musical language of scales and keys, before later developing into serial technique. This event hopes to draw parallels between what Schoenberg was doing in the world of music and his influence on Kandinsky in the visual medium -- bridging the gap between the two abstract art forms.

NB: Kandinsky: The Path to Abstraction 1908?1922 runs at Tate from 22/06 till 01/10.

Just typical -- finally some fabulous summer weather, a chance to chuck away the wellies and head for the festivals with no worries about waking up floating downstream on a river of rainwater and tie dye -- and what happens? Glastonbury takes a breather. But don't despair -- Access All Areas has stepped into the breach. You can still get your summer's worth of concerts -- and with air conditioning and comfy seats thrown in! Whatever your taste, there's something for you -- from head-banging heavy metal (Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster and the full Penelope Spheeris trilogy The Decline Of Western Civilisation, Parts I, II and III) to punk (The Filth And The Fury), hip-hop (Breath Control and Scratch), country (Johnny Cash At San Quentin) and motown (Standing In The Shadows Of Motown). Re-live the glory days of your sordid youth with -- depending on the era -- Janis Joplin (Festival Express), The Clash: Westway To The World, Nirvana (Hype!) or a live concert feed of Sigur Ros from Iceland. And for the full live concert experience feel free to let yourself go -- a recent screening of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars saw an entire row of fans cheering a sequinned, big-haired Mick Ronson's very Spinal Tap-esque screaming guitar solos.

 NB: Access All Areas runs till 30/07.

The 2005 Edinburgh Festival hit from 's Yohangza Theatre Company comes to the Barbican. The mischievous Korean goblins -- the Dokkebi -- are having a party. Jung Ung Yang, winner of South Korea's Best Young Playwright of the Year Award, has created a dynamic new version of the tangled tale of lovers. The roles of Oberon and Titania reverse roles. Puck becomes twins. And, appropriately, Bottom searches for a very rare form of Korean ginseng! The show is bursting with dance, voice, percussion and hilarious performances. South Korea is currently exporting loads of cutting-edge performance to London, including Ye-Gam's Jump at the Peacock Theatre and Theatre Momzit's Empty Hands at the London International Mime Festival. London companies, both established and emerging, are also visiting South Korea -- in particular, the Korean Mime Festival. London Korean Links has a full list of what's on.

NB: runs till 01/07.

Every so often, someone leaves art school a fully formed artist. Seems like an oxymoron, but, as art schools have turned into career-factories, many an artist has left bewildered and unconfident, trapped in a cycle of imitation and bravado in order to attract big buck collectors and A-List curators. So it is with relief and hope that we discovered Anthea Hamilton, a 2005 Royal College of Art graduate. Confident, fresh and energetic, she seems to work her magic in whatever medium is nearest at hand. Her degree show included a catchy, faux-exotic video of a dancing "conjuress of cucumbers". Her solo show at Ibid Projects is similarly charged with an atmosphere of escapism and an unabashed love of kitsch. Featuring holiday postcards and cheap materials like tacky jewellery and packing tape, her sculptures reward the viewer with rich layers of meaning and visual puns, from a sickly-sweet nostalgia for holiday romances, to back-handed homages to the kings of Modernism (Duchamp, Picabia) to sly comments on the West's fetishisation of primitive and Classical cultures. Her eclecticism is neatly reflected in the show's installation: works dangle from the ceiling, jut out from the wall and emerge from the white swimming pool tiling of the gallery floor. Go Anthea!

NB: runs till 16/07.

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 ezine 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