Prepare for much frothing at the mouth by historians and literary heavyweights as a veritable coven (Robert Irwin, Amit Chaudhuri, Michael Wood and Terry Eagleton) gathers at the British Museum to stoke the fires of controversy surrounding Edward Said's 1978 tome, Orientalism. Said's principal argument (that the West has created a negative vocabulary for the East based on their own perceived political dominance, which in turn impinges upon the East's ability to define their own identity) points the finger at language as the tool of true cultural warfare. This all ties in very nicely, thank you very much, with the current exhibition at the British Museum -- Word Into Art: Artists Of The Modern Middle East, which looks at the role of the written word in the work of artists working across the Middle East and North Africa. Definitely not one for the faint hearted.

NB: Word Into Art: Artists Of The Modern Middle East runs till 03/09.

"Because we now refuse to deny the direct dependence and responsibility of art vis-a-vis reality, and on the other hand see no chance for art as we know it to have an effect, there is only one possibility left: failure", or so says the German painter Albert Oehlen. Out of this very failure, Oehlen has crafted a very successful career. His paintings -- some of them resulting from a collaboration with Jonathan Meese -- are often jarring, associating references to various genres with elements of popular culture such as advertising and pornography. Although they're unlikely to be found hanging over the mantelpiece, his works have been shown at Basel, the Saatchi Gallery and the Reina Sofia Modern Art Museum. As an introduction to the exhibition Albert Oehlen - I Will Always Champion Good Painting, the Whitechapel Gallery has invited him to talk about his work with Andrea Tarsia, Head of Exhibitions.

NB: Albert Oehlen - I Will Always Champion Good Painting runs till 03/09.

Blimey, those mad scientists don't make it easy for us to accept them as normal, do they? Still, they do try, bless 'em. The latest ruse to win you over to the fascinating world of x + y = a frog involves "jelly, glitter and a turkey baster", and "fairy 'chromosome' cakes, icing and hundreds-of-thousands-of-DNA". It may sound like a kinky love-in for princess fetishists, but it is in fact a get-together involving "risque" experiments to extract DNA from a cell. This "pub guide" party (yup, it's street alright: there's alcohol and grub, if not the pub itself) is in the Science Museum and promises a guest list including Dolly the cloned sheep (well, part of her) and those infamous reprobates, the genetically modified human / pig hearts. Party bags include pet cloning kits (well, they?re on our freebie wish list anyway -- organisers take note).

NB: the event is free but places must be booked by calling 020.7942.4040 or emailing tickets@danacentre.org.uk.

Director Laurent Cantet riled the workhorse French nation with the critically acclaimed Time Out (2001), portraying a main protagonist who lost his job and simply couldn't be bothered to get another one. This time around he's plumbed for Haitian sex tourism and by casting sexual wolverine Charlotte Rampling, as upper class madam Ellen, he has delivered the ultimate coup. The story revolves around three affluent middle aged women who holiday on the Caribbean island with the specific intent of gallivanting with the muscle bound local inhabitants. Escaping their own life tedium, emotions dictate that they should all fall for the same rock of testosterone in local boy Legba (award winning Menothy Cesar). The politically volatile backdrop provides a suitably fiery horizon on which the women's relationships are played out and subsequently when it screened in America the priapic males in the audience were incensed by the thought of women escaping "their boring lives at home". We wonder why! A thought provoking and highly charged drama from an accomplished talent.

NB: Heading South (Vers le sud) is released in London on 07/06.

Being "the next Daft Punk" is one of those honours that the music press seems to bestow with alarming regularity, normally for the recipients to dissapear soon after, little more than a comma on the page of history. The latest recipient of this often poisoned chalice are German duo Digitalism, who headline this Friday's FabricLive and unlike many previous contenders for the title there's a good chance their powerful peak time electro could take them all the way. Should they fail to deliver though you'll still be spoilt for choice as the rest of the nights line-up reads like a who's who of today's freshest acts. Warp's 02 advert soundtracking Jackson and Vitalic are on hand to reinforce France's current reputation as the centre of the musical universe, whilst the USA is represented by stupidly now Aaron LaCrate and Low Budget, sometime accomplices of Hollertronix mainman Diplo. Add to that the likes of the Filthy Dukes, Simian Mobile Disco, Metronomy and Sinden and you could be forgiven for not even noticing the rare appearance of The Chemical Brothers on the bill.

Among the various interdisciplinary cultural cocktails, art + music is an established classic. Great at easing that problematic summer exhibition slot, the art + music fusion show gets wheeled out to attract those punters who'd rather be at a music festival than in a stuffy art gallery. This year's mega-mix is called Thank You For The Music (London Beat) and features over 30 artists across two galleries, bluechip Sprueth Magers Lee (till 02/09) and tortilla chip sketch (till 29/07). While the exhibition's title recalls a cheesy Euro Abba hit, according to the curator it refers rather to a documentary by Mika Taanila about the origins of the ubiquitous Musak that fills our every supermarket and hotel lobby. And while the show appears to celebrate the transcendental qualities of music for a cynical age, it also questions whether the visual arts have been overtaken by popular music. Can art ever be as magical as music or is art the new Musak, filling our gaping cultural void with pleasant but innocuous stuff?

NB: the private view at sketch features the premier screening of Whitby Weekenders by Ellen Cantor and John Cussans, followed by afternoon dancing with Northern Soul DJs Andy Cummings and Jorge Lewis. The rest of the sketch programme includes films by David Lamelas, Jeff Mills and Mika Taanila (runs till 29/07).

Their music has been described as "psyched out post rock blues" to "exploratory electric guitar instrumentals". It's the constant re-definition of their sound that has rendered the Texas trio as true originals. Tonight's all too rare performance in Kilburn should give them 15 years' worth of material material from which to choose, from their more experimental CD-R releases to their most recent folkier album A Vintage Burden. This latest work takes their love of freeform and improvisation and re-constructs them into songs. A finely tuned balance of gentle folk and washes of subtle ambience, reverb and drone, you could almost call this a perfect summer album and, in light of the recent good weather we've been having, this could be the perfect summer gig. In support are the excellent Steffen Basho-Junghans and Pumajaw.

Trying to chart the popular endorsement of a style of music is made easier when one club night or event becomes synonymous with an emerging genre and is defined as a must for anyone interested. DMZ -- the sporadically organised night which takes place in St Matthew's Church at the foot of Brixton Hill -- has become the Metalheadz / Naked Under Leather of the dubstep scene and, following the popular music press' appraisal of the new Planet Mu releases, you can expect the clientele to become a little more eclectic over the coming months. This time round, attendees will be treated to scene legends Digital Myztikz and Hatcha, alongside young gun Skream, whose Skreamizm 2 sampler is currently tearing up turntables and destroying DJs' and listeners' expectations by messing around with the tempo and pace of dubstep. It should be a good one.

Since the Belleville three first hitched their machine funk to a series of convoluted theories to provide good journalistic copy and differentiate themselves from the Chicago house scene, Detroit techno has become the serious thinking person's music of choice. While most dance music's primary concern is to sound good after you've consumed a sackful of horse tranquilliser, techno's belief that it serves a higher purpose and has more in common with the likes of Miles Davis than DJ Otzi is a noble if often slightly ludicrous and pompous one. This Saturday Fabric plays host to Underground Resistance, the collective and label that best illustrates the motor city's obsession with theory and obfuscation, who at their best get closest to the hi-tech jazz the founding fathers of techno were aiming for. On Saturday they are represented by Los Hermanos, the seven-piece band that fuses the afro-latin sound of bands like War with the militant electro of Detroit. For those more concerned with consuming bucketloads of dubious pharmaceuticals than electro theorising, normal service will be maintained in Fabric's other rooms where the likes of Tiefschwarz and Sleeparchive will be on hand to supply some no nonsense bangers to wobble your jaws to.

The Barbican's weekend-long programme of Japanese feature-length animated films is a carefully selected introduction to Anime. For those familiar only with the likes of Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away, this a great chance to see a much broader selection of films, from the legendary 1988 classic Akira (Sat at 1:45pm), to work from new and upcoming filmmakers who don't usually get a cinematic release in this country. One of the highlights is Tokyo Godfathers (Sat at 4:15pm), a modern-day, urbanised retelling of the story of an abandoned child found on Xmas Day by three strangers. In this case the strangers are three homeless park-dwellers -- an ageing alcoholic man, a transsexual and a young girl who has run away from home. The film is an uncompromising, dystopian vision of Tokyo that captures every detail of the city, accurately rendering the atmosphere of the backstreets and the polite, disinterested people that wander by. Also showing will be a series of episodes of 2005's Paranoia Agent (Sun at 2pm) by Satoshi Kon (one of the directors of Tokyo Godfathers), and a triple bill (Sun at 4pm) of films by the animator hailed as the new Hayao Miyazaki, Makoto Shinkai. Both screenings will be introduced by The Anime Encyclopedia co-author Helen McCarthy.

NB: this event runs on both 08/07 and 09/07.

There's some incredibly exciting music being produced in the British indie / underground scene at the moment and this gig showcases some of the finest bands which the mainstream music press has yet to catch onto. At the heart of this movement is Foals, the coming together of two defunct Oxford bands Face Meets Grill and the stunning The Edmund Fitzgerald, collaborating with a member of indie heroes Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies. Combined they produce a stunning mix of yearning vocal melodies, complex polyrhythmic guitars and dynamic drum parts -- a fresh, organic and wholly original mix. Cats And Cats And Cats offer a similarly technical offering: entwining off-kilter indie-rock rhythms within epic post-rock dynamics. Similarly to Foals, they seem to offer something highly original, seemingly fuelled by the desire to reinvent typical song structures. Maybeshewill and Fight Fire With Water offer similarly epic math-rock textural instrumental attacks. Ultimately these four bands offer an insight into a genuine movement within British music, and at such a fan-friendly price, it's unlikely there will be better value in London this week.

NB: Foals also play The Pleasure Unit in Bethnal Green on 14/07 with The Sailplanes, Pfaff and Favours For Sailors.

Fancy yourself a mover and a shaker in London's cultural scene because you've had wine in plastic glasses at a few gallery openings and have suffered through painfully self-conscious DJ sets by minor celebrities? Well, it's back to school for you! The ICA / London Consortium's Summer School, that is. The odd lecture will be mixed in with exclusive screenings and gallery tours at the ICA as well as off-site visits to exhibitions, artists' studios, galleries and areas of architectural interest. You and your schoolmates will hear from the creme de la creme of London's curators, artists, designers, architects, publishers and writers. Among them Shumon Basar, partner of Newbetter; Tamsin Dillon, director of London Underground's Platform for Art; Mark Lawson Bell from Warm Rain, the design agency responsible for sketch; Vincent Honore, Assistant Curator of the Pierre Huyghe exhibition at Tate Modern; and Sally Tallant, Director of Education and Public Programmes at the Serpentine Gallery.

NB: runs till 28/07.

Georg Buechner died aged only 23 before finishing his play Woyzeck, but this spare yet expressionistic tragedy of the working man has attracted many radical reimaginings: from Werner Herzog's movie (itself showing at the Barbican on 15/07) to a musical collaboration by Robert Wilson and Tom Waits. Icelandic hotshot Gisli Orn Gardarsson is as at home here in London as in Reykjavik -- his Vesturport Theatre blazed a trail with their gravitas-defying Romeo And Juliet and we liked his role in Kneehigh's Nights At The Circus. This is the return of this production after a triumphant outing in the Barbican's Young Genius season last year. Vesturport's English-language version washes the stage with gallons of theatrical chutzpah, aerial wizardry and startling imagery -- its beating heart a score by Nick Cave, himself well-tuned to telling these old, cruel tales from the heart. It's back at BITE for ten performances only: book your chance to tune into Gardarsson's vision.

NB: runs till 15/07.

Well, wouldn't we all like to know who we are, eh? Let's hope no one says anything about your ma and the milkman and we should be OK. Better pipe down; one senses there might be a zero tolerance approach to glibness at David Blunkett's lecture and interview (by Kamila Shamsie, author of Broken Verses) at the ICA this week. The Sheffield Brightside MP formerly stuck in a scandal-resignation cycle is speaking at the ICA as part of a series of lectures discussing the crisis of British identity. His position in the debate is that "Openness and globalisation do not necessarily bring greater tolerance", and that the way forward is to appease concern about change so not to alienate the masses and send them running off to the BNP. Hmmm. Have your say.

NB: on 27/07 catch the Nobel Prize winning Amartya Sen chatting with Jon Snow for Part II of this series.

Some of Yoko Ono's contributions to the British art scene have been sagas of controversy and misunderstanding. Her piece My Mummy Was Beautiful caused some outrage in the Beatles hometown during the Liverpool Biennial in 2004 -- she insisted the banners showing enormous vistas of female anatomy were an innocent "introduction to humanity". This installation in St Paul's is more zen than avant-garde, more Oriental in design, more mellow, more unmistakeable a statement, though as potent as anything she has done before. One hundred white ropes open down from a single point of light below a window in the north transept, resembling divine light the sort that religious experiences are made of. You almost imagine St Paul himself might be kneeling at the bottom. Instead the ropes are knotted down to sturdy railway sleepers, and Riverbed, a floor of smooth grey stones, stretches out behind. Ono's art is always a call to action -- the other two pieces: Cleaning Piece and Wish Tree, invite simple but amazingly cathartic responses. These works show Ono at 73: still provocative, still campaigning for the logic of peace, but perhaps more peacefully than ever before.

NB: runs till 13/07.

Brooklyn-based band Animal Collective provide a soundtrack of surreal psychedelic insanity; their sound embraces layered percussion, chiming guitars, dramatically whispered vocals and a range of instrumentation. Within the layered weirdness exists clear, melodic and infectious melodies; pop music reinvented with the focus upon individuality and eccentricity. The Flaming Lips and KultureFlash favourites Devendra Banhart and Ariel Pink are comparable reference points, yet the band themselves are stunningly unique. Their latest album Feels is their most accomplished album to date, garnering universal critical acclaim, the band being elevated to "cult indie" status in the US. The band have been debuting several new songs recently; with each new album Animal Collective make it clear they will not retread old ground, hence this will be an excellent chance to see where they will next sonically venture. As ever, Eat Your Own Ears have excelled themselves and provided an excellent supporting line-up, making this gig excellent value for money. Warp's Battles, featuring guitarist Ian Williams of math-rock legends Don Caballero, are an intriguing blend of rhythmically intense post-rock. Adem will undoubtedly showcase his beautifully structured acoustic folk.

If you were out of town during the whole of Architecture Week and the Biennale, you'll be pleased to know that a few of the best bits are still running. The Architecture Foundation's Airspace exhibition is one of them -- a small exhibition addressing a big issue: will a skyline of skyscrapers work in a city like London? The exhibition poses the question, but cleverly avoids answering it directly, instead opting to show us some best, worst and the probable future visions of London, depending on your point of view. In fact, you can even vote on it; is your preference a "London-hai" (as in Shanghai and Dubai) city of unrestraint, or the rather less impressive panorama depicting a towerless (and powerless?) capital. Airspace could easily have fallen foul of the traditional "20 glamour shots stuck on a board" approach to archishows, but instead Newbetter's curation uses a combination of stills and video (Alex Haw's video installation is worth the visit) to make us think. Towers are definitely coming to a skyline near you soon. So where would you like them put?

NB: runs till 14/07. What Should We Do, an Airspace debate, takes place on 13/07 (6:30pm) at the same venue.

For many musicians, an inspired and eventful youth does not always extend to adulthood, or at least musical maturity. Neil Young, though, was presented with a unique set of circumstances surrounding the production of his most recent album, and the subject of this Jonathan Demme documentary. Diagnosed in 2005 with a brain aneurysm which required immediate and life threatening surgery, Young decided that before he received treatment, he would go into the recording studio with some family and long-time friends to record what might well have been the last eight songs of his career. As an artist reputed for his emotionally charged lyrics and musical style throughout his career, Young's music is often fraught with familiar conflicts and contemplations. Prairie Wind represents a critical moment in his life, both as an artist and as a human being, when he was forced to confront his own mortality -- a subject explored with candour by few artists.

NB: Jonathan Demme (Philadelphia, Silence Of The Lambs), a prolific filmmaker who is also well-versed in the portrayal of human anxiety, will be available for a Q&A alongside the UK premier screening of Neil Young: Heart Of Gold.

The panel on the door announces "The Title As The Curator's Art Piece, a Summer Show by Mathieu Copeland" yet, upon entering, it might take you a few seconds to find the art. Claude Rutault's monochromes, crafted out of paintings acquired at auction and then painted over, blend perfectly into the walls. Jaroslaw Flicinski's wall paintings emerge gradually from their support as their various textures reflect or refract the light. Together, the works form a self-referential, somewhat ironic commentary on the nature of painting and the environment of the gallery already introduced by the title which is itself a quotation from Stefan Brueggemann's ongoing Show Titles series (included in this year's Beck's Futures). If these walls don't speak in a language that appeals, just walk pass them to the office space at the back. If you dare ask, the staff will give voice to the spoken word creations of your choice. Whether you choose the Chinese Whisper of the day, as transmitted by Nick Currie (aka Momus), one sentence from an original contribution by Douglas Coupland, an excerpt of Tomas Vanek's collection of familiar sentences, Karl Holmqvist's interpretation of Jean Cocteau's work or an exploration of the ephemeral nature of the spoken word by either Lawrence Weiner or Ian Wilson, you are bound to be left speechless.

NB: runs till 02/09.

Tacita Dean's films, photographs and installations over the past 15 years have explored temporality, history and the archive; investigating the point when reality breaks away from its allotted point in space and time. The 1996 film Disappearance At Sea tells the story of a man who faked his position at sea and ultimately went mad; other 16mm films chronicle anachronisms that persist in the present: the Communist-era Fernsehturm in East Berlin, or the son of silent film actors, in Boots. In her latest film, Kodak (2006), Dean trains her camera on the last factory in Europe to produce her film stock of choice -- black-and-white film for Standard 16mm cameras. The 44-minute film was shot on the last five rolls of the stock; it is a narrative of film turning its gaze upon itself and witnessing its own demise. It premieres at Dean's mid-career retrospective, up now at the Schaulager space, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, in Basel.

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.

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