Ethertecture. Modernism's embracing of technology meant that certain questions surrounding the "buildability" of architecture were answered. For example, prestressed concrete liberated the floor plan by allowing for larger spans whilst structural glazing further enhanced spatial transparency. Today, in the contemporary age "where the modern has been supplanted by the modem", the question of "can we build it?" has been supplanted by "can we see it?" An obfuscated architecture has emerged as a result of the unchecked endorsement of softwares and motion graphics. The slow spaces of the city are being accelerated in quick time via walk-throughs and fly-bys and the seductive lure of high resolution imagery -- architecture's pornography is a rich pixel-laden spread -- means design fundamentals are being overlooked. A "concept" for one is frequently glossed over. Architecture's rush to embrace digital technologies has resulted in something paradoxically more visual in its aesthetic yet less visible in terms of its meaning. The Bartlett School forged its reputation on beguiling architectural hieroglyphics -- the codification of drawing -- and one of its prime exponents Neil Spiller, Professor of Architecture and Digital Theory, will suggest where architecture might next be seen. Listen out for the words "reconfigure, nanotechnology, device..."

NB: this talk has been programmed in conjunction with the Barbican's architectural exhibition Future City - Experiment And Utopia In Architecture 1956-2006 (runs till 17/09).

London's first and oldest experimental theatre company celebrate their 40th birthday this year. Most Londoners know someone who's been involved with the People Show, but can everyone claim to have seen one of the 116 People Shows? Well, now is the time to go along, as they present People Show 117: The Big 40th Birthday Show at their studios in Pollard Row, Bethnal Green. Everyone's invited to the party! People Show is run on a "non-autocratic ethos"; basically, it's an artist-run collective of writers, designers, performers, directors and whoever else may be drawn into the creative process. All the more amazing that they have survived for so long. These groups tend to collapse after a while, not to mention the average short life span of urban "experimental" theatre companies. People Show have continued to evolve through introducing new collaborators to create work that is multidisciplinary, multi-everything. Go along and see what surprises they've put together for their birthday show -- it promises to include moments from artists across the four decades of the People Show.

NB: runs for four nights from 12/07 till 15/07.

Shot almost in real time using a hand-held camera, The Death of Mr Lazerescu is a super-real Romanian hospital drama. The film follows Mr Lazerescu, a man in his sixties who lives on his own. After feeling increasingly unwell he calls on the help of his neighbours and the Bucharest emergency services. However, as he's unkempt, elderly and spends his evenings drinking over-proof spirits, people are unrelenting in their need to lecture him, treating him with an abusive lack of feeling. A large part of the success of the script is down to the director's genuine hypochondria, which fuels the continuous uncertainty of what is wrong with Mr Lazerescu. Cristi Puiu's film has similarly compelling, perfectly controlled dramatic qualities to the Dardenne brothers' L'enfant; however, the director's main inspiration came from his admiration for the French New Wave director Eric Rohmer. The Death of Mr Lazerescu is the first part of Six Stories From The Bucharest Suburbs that the director intends to make as an answer to Rohmer's Six Moral Tales.

NB: The Death of Mr Lazarescu is released in London on 14/07. Other films of note released on the same day are Atomised and Taxi Driver (new print).

Back on the screen in a new print, 30 years after its release, Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese's ultimate urban-paranoia outsider film, is part of an NFT season focusing on film composer Bernard Herrmann's works. Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) -- Vietnam veteran, insomniac, social misfit, borderline psychotic -- spends 12 hours a night in a yellow cab hustling fares through a hellish, lawless, '70s pre-Giuliani-zero-tolerance New York City. Maintaining an obsessive and increasingly rage-filled inner monologue, Bickle drives all night through billowing steam clouds and burst fire hydrant puddles, praying that "someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets". Off-duty, between porn cinemas, diners and shooting ranges, he obsessively attempts to woo a presidential campaign-worker (Cybill Shepherd) and then a 14-year-old prostitute Jodie Foster, while attempting to make his mark on the world. A brilliant study of loneliness, social alienation and paranoia ("You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me... Well, I'm the only one here"), the Palme d'Or winning film's cinematography, script, performances and memorable jazz-inspired musical score (only completed hours before Herrmann's death in 1975) has made it a classic of American cinema, the ultimate portrait of a earlier NYC.

NB: Taxi Driver screens at the NFT till 27/07. Other films of note released on the same day in London are Atomised and The Death Of Mr Lazarescu.

It's a bird. It's a plane. No... it's a massive dirigible fixed to the ground. Rem Koolhaas has struck London at long last, yet Londoners are scratching their heads. On paper his latest piece of design reads as ethereal and mysterious, yet if someone were to deflate it with a needle where it stands it would simply look like a Claes Oldenberg installation. Perhaps it would make a nice outdoor bar, or a Tadao Ando-style meditation centre. There's some rather questionable Thomas Demand wallpaper plastered within. To give credit where credit is due, let's be sure to thank Cecil Balmond, a structural engineer whose patience is admirable. He not only participated in realising this ridiculous idea and other previous architectural pavilions for the Serpentine, but he built the massive red eardrum-urethra that Anish Kapoor designed for Tate Modern. The organisers of this year's Serpentine architectural installation meet to discuss their collaboration on Friday. Professor Koolhaas will no doubt be dapper in black. He's erudite enough to make the evening's discussion feel like your auditing a course at Harvard.

NB: Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond's pavilion is on view till 15/10. If you cannot make this talk catch Rem Koolhaas, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Grant Morrison and Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster on 21/07 as they discuss the pavilion.

It's not enough to have the perfect job CV. These days, you need the perfect life CV too. Have you travelled the world? Yes! Have you had a threesome? Woo-hoo! Have you undergone a traumatic experience and come out the other end a better person? Can't say that you have? Well, that's where the company "with" come in. Via their team of specialist agents trained to undertake any of these burdensome tasks on your behalf, "with" provides what they term "Life Enhancement Solutions" or biographical plugs for the frustrated urbanite who nearly has everything. Up until last year, withyou.co.uk appeared to be yet another anonymous self-help site; now, however, the directors have decided to go on the road with their products, asking ex-clients to reveal the benefits of the "with" system to new audiences. Comedians, musicians and artists are among those who have spoken, sung and performed the wonders of "with". As part of an extended series of events at the ICA and Bethnal Green Workingmen's Club, this Friday, "with" launches With Water. A brilliantly bizarre spoof of our self-help industry and the artist's supposedly therapeutic role within it, "with" is the most original artist's project in Britain today.

Werner Herzog's career as a director could be summed up by his dogged will to make the most unfeasible films. Nobody would accuse the very man who ate his shoe on film after loosing a bet to Errol Morris of not taking challenges seriously. His adaptation of Georg Buechner's famous unfinished play is just such a challenge... for the director and the actors as well as the spectators. Franz Woyzeck, an eager yet hapless rifleman, is assigned as an orderly to a captain who treats him with contempt. As if this daily humiliation wasn't enough, the local doctor uses him as a guinea pig and his wife openly cuckolds him. He can only bear so much cruelty until he breaks down, but even after the climactic collapse you have to wonder whose sanity is most questionable in this small Polish town under Nazi occupation. As part of the epic love-hate working relationship between Herzog and Klaus Kinski, Woyzeck is the most unrecognised, yet Kinsky's inimitable performance, always toeing the line between unbearable pathos and absurd comedy, makes it well worth seeing.

NB: this screening has been programme in conjunction with the run of Vesturport Theatre's production of Woyzeck (till 15/07).

When Silver Jews sold out two nights at the Scala last April there was a tangible sense of occasion; in returning for their third ever UK gig they offer the chance for those who missed out back then. Expect everything that made the Scala gigs so memorable: a long set ranging across their entire back catalogue, featuring some of the finest indie-rock ever written, interspersed with engaging banter from frontman David Berman. Silver Jews have been perennially linked to indie-rock pioneers Pavement (Berman founded the Silver Jews with Pavement's Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich); therefore, it seems wholly appropriate that main support will be provided by Marble Valley, the musical project of former Pavement drummer Steve West. Their sound is a captivating mix of Kraftwerk, Can and the indie-rock slant that Pavement defined in the '90s. Absentee, formerly featuring Romeo of The Magic Numbers, plough a particular kind of guitar music; their sound is often remarkable for the clash between the deep, gruff, baritone vocals that hang, often uncomfortably, within gorgeously harmonious indie-pop arrangements. A strong, varied and rich bill of music, then; the Jews might yet come round for a fourth UK gig, but it's unlikely it will feature such an appropriate supporting bill.

Conceived and compiled by Ann Shenton (ex Add N to (X)) The Electronic Bible is an attempt to archive the furthest reaches of synthesizer music and separate the wheat from the robo-chaff. But this is no wishy washy church of England "all are welcome" affair; Shenton has approached this with the zeal of a true believer determined to uphold the orthodoxy of prophets such as Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and Cabaret Voltaire and root out false digital idols. Now with the second chapter of the bible ready to be brought down from the mountain the faithful will be gathering together again to celebrate all things analogue and electronic. This weekend the techno tabernacle will be set up in Elephant and Castle, where a hand picked selection of avant-garde misfits and electronic punk mavericks such as Anat Ben-David (Chicks On Speed), No Bra and Shenton's own Large Number will be spreading the good word. Amen.

As part of Watch This Space summer festival (runs till 02/09), London based multimedia artists and DJ / producers Addictive TV use the giant flytower of the National Theatre as their projecting stage, as they present their distinctive brand of audio / visual remixes and video mash-ups. Featuring the premier VJs in the world according to DJ Magazine, in reality, it's hard to know what to expect unless you saw it last year; but the critical acclaim and universal praise from the media surely represents something. Having played in diverse and distinctive environments such as the Pompidou Centre in Paris, Tokyo superclub Ageha and San Francisco's Kabiki Theatre, then it's apparent that Addictive TV have an acute sense of urban surroundings. More than anything this free concert should demonstrate their drive to progress UK club culture into the future, aspiring to produce something that is more stimulating and cinematically engaging.

Easy to let things slip, isn't it? Whilst the dance community (if you can call it that) have had their recent beat fix from the section in the record shops titled "minimal", it can be all too easy to forget that other worthy rhythm-fixated movements are continuing to plough exciting, innovative and genuinely new territories. Electro is one such genre that has never stopped pushing it. From America's hip-hop affiliated results to Europe's man-machine derivative, we at KultureFlash still think it's as exciting and sexy as ever. One notable label that's been responsible for keeping up the quality is Holland's Delsin Records. Their releases are perfect examples of textbook future funk and Dynarec is the perfect artist to take this to the live stage. Want to get to know the records? We think the H*ndjob EP on Vaporware is a firm start (if you'll excuse the pun). After the slight dismissal of minimal earlier, we take it all back when it comes to Madrid's Alex Under. His work on Trapez and Apnea as well as his own CMYK label are rich, lambent excursions into deep electronic house. His live sets are nothing sort of exemplary.

This is the third Tin Pan Alley Festival -- held in London's Denmark Street and absolutely free to attend. British Sea Power seem to be the "de facto" headline band for festivals of this sort, yet their omnipresence does not detract from the Brighton four-piece's quality. Their second album, Open Season, has seen them develop a more accessible sound and continue to produce their engaging and intelligent alternative rock. Expect life-affirming coruscating odes to nature and mortality. None of the other bands have the current profile that BSP possess, but there's plenty of talent worth checking out before the headliners. Bromheads Jacket are a Sheffield three-piece gaining favourable comparisons to The Rakes and Arctic Monkeys; F.O. Machete show a blatant disregard for musical genres or boundaries, extolling instead an all embracing attitude that sets them apart from many of their contemporaries; Untitled Musical Project specialise in a particularly raucous and belligerent brand of hard rock. Each of the bands offers something relatively fresh and exciting and, if the prospect of some great music with no cost doesn't appeal enough, then the fact that the festival is supporting the charity Shelter and their Million Children Campaign should ensure the day is worthy of your time.

Like a lot of the important cinema that has emerged from his country, Maziar Bahari's films remain unseen by most of Iran. And Along Came A Spider and Football, Iranian Style were two of the most incisive and controversial portraits of women under the Iranian regime. Of Shame And Coffins took an unequivocal look at the business of AIDS in Africa. In Targets: Reporters In Iraq, Bahari trained his gaze on history's most recent and regrettable war zone. This masterclass includes screenings of Bahari's films, and testimony from his own experiences in Iran and Iraq. It is bound to be an illuminating insight into documentary film-making, as well as a chance to witness the objective and mindful eye of a gifted cinematographer directed back at his own heritage in two of the most controversial countries in world politics.

NB: this masterclass takes place on both 15/07 (Iran) and 16/07 (Iraq).

Few things are more deeply tedious than kill-joys and curmudgeons harping on about how much better a book is than its cinematic adaptation. We say, get over it already. Still, here's a teensy warning -- if Atomised is the tome you'd take on your desert island, best stay away from the film. In director Oskar Roehler's defence, the plot of Michel Houellebecq's 1998 shock novel is a slightly convoluted labyrinth of discursive ideas, rantings and musings (about where society's twisted attitudes to sex are leading us) -- none of which translate well on screen. As a result, where you have a philosophically explorative novel about sex, perversion and procreation loosely illustrated using the extreme cases of two brothers (one a hideously ugly sex fiend / freak, the other a frigid scientist developing theories for reproduction without sex), the film relies on those two characters to drive the debate. An opening scene that sees a teacher jizzing on his student's homework gives you an idea of how the director chooses to play the graphic elements of the novel, and the rather depressing way in which he sets up scenes and sews them together is loyal to Houellebecq's tone. It's an interesting film, but perhaps not one to take your gran along to.

NB: Atomised is released in London on 14/07. Other films of note released on the same day are The Death Of Mr Lazarescu and Taxi Driver (new print).

It is a fine time to reassess life, art and entropy through one of the most influential artists of the late 20th century. An enigmatic and difficult figure, Dieter Roth is an artist for whom the subtle merging of life and art yielded an epic body of work. Eschewing international art capitals in favour of a traveller's existence, he spent his life investigating a mythology guided less by celebrity obsession than by the poetics of collaboration, drink and decay. His ever-extending output alighted upon painting, Super-8 films and monumental assemblages as well as music, prose and artist-publications. This definitive documentary by Edith Jud features personal accounts by Roth's family, lovers and collaborators assembled to Roth's writings, films and music. A profound accumulation of the anecdotal this at last provides an opportunity to examine the life and work of an artist until now underrepresented in the UK.

NB: free but booking is essential. Dieter Roth's work is currently on view at Hauser & Wirth's new space, Coppermill (till 29/08).

The debate that surrounds identifying the source of sexual orientation is a grey area. The media head, batting between the opposing poles of nature and nurture can leave even the most informed punter with a sore neck. With scientific advance and genetics at the fore we've finally let Kinsey off the hook. In a cultural climate where biological destiny has taken centre stage, its own subtle nuances are ripe for debate. The Dana Centre hosts an evening where the scientific and cultural implications of sexual orientation are explored. With speakers including geneticist Sven Bocklandt, psychobiologist Qazi Rahman and social historian Jeffrey Weeks, the evening promises to infuse lively debate with a panoramic view on the nature and significance of sexuality.

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

Formed in Tuscson, Arizona, in punk's wake, Green On Red evolved into a rootsy, lubricious rock'n'roll combo whose blend of dishevelled country-rock and blotto psychedelia got them lassoed into the mid-'80s Paisley Underground scene, making them unlikely affiliates of the Rain Parade, the Dream Syndicate and, er, the Bangles. With boozy, loose-cannon singer Dan Stuart woozily abetted by chiselled Californian guitar-slinger, Chuck Prophet IVth, Green On Red were always a more visceral, combustible proposition than their polka dot-disporting peers, and Gas Food Lodging, their sozzled, 1985 magnum opus, remains the most enduring product of what was as much a journalistic conceit as a bona fide musical "movement". Heavy on the Neil Young longueurs and taut, spiralling guitar solos, it's an album redolent of sticky floored honky tonks, desert morning come downs and Tequila-laced emotional torpor. Now heroically (not to say implausibly) cleaned up and healthy, Messrs Stuart, Prophet and confreres reunite to essay the album in its entirety as part of the All Tomorrows Parties organisation's erroneously titled Don't Look Back season. Whether sobriety will take the edge off the once splenetic "Hair Of The Dog", or add a previously unanticipated gimlet eye to the spectacularly fuzzy "Time Ain't Nothing", is moot -- but a night of (perhaps abstemious) celebration surely awaits band and fans alike.

Summer sees a wealth of classical music in London, with the Proms leading the charge -- a festival sadly tarnished by the image of Union Jack socks and flag-waving while pieces skimmed from the top of the classical corpus play in the background. Those of you who want to hear some great orchestral music but can't be bothered to queue outside the Royal Albert Hall and / or become acquainted with some of Shostakovich's more contemplative moments can get a fix of modern film soundtrack classics, courtesy of Ennio Morricone, as part of the enduringly popular ATP-organised Don't Look Back series. Morricone's name is synonymous with dramatic and by turns epic and wistful film scores, and the bill for this concert -- featuring music from Cinema Paradiso, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly and his soaring, astonishing soundtrack for The Mission -- is a riot of instantly recognisable and oft-plundered classic themes. It promises to be a fairly sober affair, but unmissable for those of you who believe in the right of the modern film theme music to enter the canon of classical music.

For their summer show, Ritter/Zamet have gone vintage with an exhibition of photographs from the early '70s by German "Body Art" and performance pioneer, Juergen Klauke. Although to date he's been somewhat overlooked outside the German-speaking world, Klauke played a vital part in defining a new creative era for Continental Europe in sync with the incisive self-explorations coming out the US by artists such as Acconci and Warhol and androgynous glam-rock musicians such as Lou Reed. Sharing its title with Reed's infamous album released in the same year (1973), Klauke's Transformer series sees the artist posed in a number of absurd theatrical guises with masks and S&M props in order to reveal a trans-dimensional identity / sexuality / gender in a constant state of flux. Often more in line with caricature than subversion, Klauke's impressive 13-part sequence, Self-Performance (1972-73), shows the artist undergoing a radical transformation of sexual identities from strutting camp machismo to bashful bride -- pre-figuring the identity play of Cindy Sherman a decade later.

NB: runs till 22/07. As a complement to the Klauke show, the back gallery presents, HER-SELF, a small but astute exhibition of young women photographers exploring the theme of self-representation. Includes work by British artists Sarah Baker and Kate Hawkins along with Alex McQuilkin from the US and Singaporean artist Sze Lin Pang.

Art is as much about problem solving as it is about criticism or social commentary, and one of the greatest problems we face is what the hell to do with all of this stuff we insist on producing. Indeed arguably, art is just more stuff, but presents an interesting conundrum. In the realm of all things artistic, stuff is created in order to disseminate the proliferation of... stuff that bombards and beleaguers us. So, do we aspire to rid ourselves of it? Do we sentimentalise it, do we cling to our things until we invariably use, abuse or diffuse them into nothingness? The exhibition currently on at Transition poses intriguing questions of this relationship between loss and excess, and interrogates the relevance of whimsy as a constant value, perhaps the thread that ties us to our unnecessary yet desirable belongings. Notably, Lloyd Durling's meticulous biro drawings challenge concepts of scale, both physical and emotional, by dwarfing the tragic and elevating the mundane to heroic stature. Ruth Claxton's peculiar sculptures transform the ordinary life of a piece of bric-a-brac into something disquieting and purposeful. An off-the-beaten-track exhibition that is definitely worth catching.

NB: runs till 23/07.

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