Disc Jockeys... they're 10 a penny these days and people are constantly saying "it's just playing other people's records" and "DJs aren't real musicians". But it's quite amazing what can be done with a turntable. They've been used as instruments since 1939 -- taken far from their original purpose of being a "neutral reproducing device". One of today's best known exponents of this art is Philip Jeck (alongside Christian Marclay and Janek Schaefer, with whom he has collaborated), where the sound from the turntable is altered with mechanical and electronic means to create something entirely new and different, which may be improvised and adapted -- needles stuck in grooves, distortion, wow and flutter are all things to be embraced, emphasised and studied. Also joining him on the bill at Fear Of Jazz are Isnaj Dui and Elite Barbarian... with the antechamber, also "playing other people's records"... or DJing even.

Filmmaker Bruno Dumont dragged his audience over the coals in the peerless L'humanite and does it again with the dramatic curve of Flanders, already flaunting the Grand Prix from Cannes. Dumont always excels in portraying his male characters as the minatory animals they are, indiscriminately destroying relationships and each other on some nameless battle ground. Pivoted throughout by the impassive performance of war bound farmer Demester (Samuel Boidin) and his inchoate relationship with childhood friend Barne (Adelaide Leroux), Dumont expertly rips open the solitude that exists between two people trying to make sense of their different emotional worlds. And the lumbering male doesn't come off great. This masterclass, along with one at the Curzon Mayfair on Sunday, is being chaired by 21-year-old wunderkind Pierre-Alexandre Simoes who's guaranteed to coax Dumont underneath his microscope for a full and privileged examination of a very necessary director.

NB: this masterclass and screening is free but you have to RSVP by sending an email to rsvp@ambafrance.org.uk. If you cannot make it on Thursday catch another masterclass with the director on 01/04 (3:30pm) at the Curzon Mayfair (part of A Rendez-Vous With French Cinema which runs from 29/03 till 01/04).

Just over a year ago onedotzero curated a showcase of moving programmed images for Friday Late at the V&A; this year Nexus, producers of animations for clients from the BBC and U2 to the mighty Specsavers, come of age and take over the baton. This Friday's V&A event looks at animation from the basics -- not simple programming but pen and paper. If you can skive off work, the London Animation Studio will be creating a cartoon from scratch in the Raphael cartoon gallery, though they / it can't really be expected to rival the Old Master's tapestry designs in the space of a day, however strong in numbers they come from Central St Martins. onedotzero will still be in evidence with a showreel of 10 years of impressive and influential moving images, while anyone who has experienced Philip Worthington's interactive Shadow Monsters at the Design Museum will agree he's fiercely talented, and augurs well for the next generation.

NB: for animation fans make sure you check out the excellent Momentary Momentum: Animated Drawings exhibition at Parasol unit (runs till 12/05).

For most of us perversion is the disturbing symptom of a monstrous libidinous excess, and the expression of certain abnormal drives that definitively go against behavioural norms. Darian Leader (following a theme explicated by his guru Jacques Lacan) argues that the psychoanalyst view of perversion is rather of a symbolic structure that exists much deeper than the superficial, manifest symptoms. More crucially, perversion occupies, and perhaps defines, the position a subject and his / her partner construct for each other in their fantasies. Read in this way, perversion is part of the structure of the sexual relationship, rather than a deviance from the "normal" sexual relationship. Leader, an acclaimed psychoanalyst and founder of the Centre For Freudian Analysis And Research in London, has been pioneering the way for a new kind of pop psychology, to counter the disturbing and increasing mass of self-help books, bringing a genuine intellectual rigour to "self-help" along with a witty and engaging style. Along with the omnipresent Slavoj Zizek, he has helped make Lacan accessible (and fashionable).

The conductor and composer Oliver Knussen stands in a class of his own making, an immensely generous personality who works tirelessly to ensure that audiences hear the very best contemporary music. We first saw him conducting a concert dedicated to the late Toru Takemitsu in London, a figure who was at that time little known to the public at large. His choice of programme was impeccable, drawing the audience effortlessly into the composer's world and at one stage even stopping to play a piece for a second time, explaining that he felt it deserved to be heard again owing to the immense complexity of what appeared to sound very simple. Needless to say, the second performance was a world apart from the first and it was a rare moment at which you realise how much is taken for granted in this type of music and how valuable it is to have figures such as Knussen who are able to articulate its virtues openly and honestly. Since then and partly as a result of Knussen's devotion to interpreting his work, Takemitsu has been widely upheld as one of the key voices in 20th century music. We feel sure that this evening will open our ears to similarly under-acknowledged musical delights.

NB: also of note is the Thomas Ades festival currently running at the Barbican (till 22/04) and the Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment's performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 02/04 (7:30pm).

Named by ArtReview as one of the top 25 emerging artists to watch in 2005, Kate Aitken presents both drawing and sculpture in her show at Museum 52. Atkin studied photography at the RCA and uses this as source material for her large and intricate pencil drawings. Abstract details of uniquely deformed objects are translated from photographs into what the artist calls "islands". She was inspired by Virginia Woolf's essay A Room Of One's Own in which she suggests that for a woman to produce high quality art she must be totally autonomous and have a room of her own, that is, be an island. This sense of isolation is well conveyed in the drawing The Island Of St Helena in which the malformed roots of a tree rest on a delicate horizon line and disappear into the white expanse of paper above. The two sculptures are a continuation of the drawings and represent the last metamorphosis of the original abstract photographic details. In Multitudes, Disorders Will Grow...(H Neville) and Dauntless Island are made in relief on black painted boards, matte black island formations with striated surfaces formed of strands of paint drawn up to the pinnacle of each atoll. Atkin's conceptual language and machinations bestow new meaning and possibilities on the abstract details she isolates and objectifies, rendering them extraneous to their origin.

NB: runs till 31/03.

Brian Catling is an older artist and poet who continues to make performances which retain their unsettling presence and rugged beauty. He himself has the appearance of a Beckett character and his performances, executed with an unforced intensity, have an elusive shamanic quality to them, in the sense that they are highly aestheticised rites that evolve over time. As his contribution to the six-week long programme of performances at the It's Just Bread exhibition at Alma Enterprises, Catling will be creating a new durational performance for the gallery space. This new piece should bring together the diverse aspects of his practice, which spans sculpture, poetry, video and performance, relating these to the white walled gallery space through the use of light. The ongoing programme at the gallery continues till 15th April and includes performances by Hayley Newman, Kim Noble and Gayle Chong Kwan, amongst others, and a video reel that features Catling's startling performance for camera, Antic.

NB: this performance is part of the It's Just Bread exhibition (runs till 15/04).

Even before Guy Debord (Society Of The Spectacle, 1967) and his Situationist buddies stumbled upon the clever idea that all of culture -- our lives included -- has become spectacle, artists have been using the idea of spectacle in their work. But what does "spectacle" mean to the art world nowadays? Big museums such as Tate Modern are often accused of pandering to the masses by presenting art like any other form of popular entertainment such as shopping malls, amusement parks, cinema and television. This symposium will be an opportunity to discus the place of art in the wider global market of entertainment. Expect interesting contributions from artist Andrea Fraser, performance artist and heir extraordinaire of the Institutional Critique genre; art historian, former music critic and DJ Ina Blom; as well as Tate curator Frances Morris; and art critics Claire Bishop and Mark Godfrey.

The opulence of a 1920s ballroom lends itself beautifully to the femmes fabuleux that adorn any Dirty Red Ball, so this year's episode of the annual gathering looks to have made itself a suitable bed in which to lie, metaphorically speaking. But make no mistake: this is a congenitally seductive affair -- hand picked social butterflies happily ensure female guests are introduced to each other. Cavorting hoi polloi need not apply, since the dress code of "dirty red or filthy rich" is strictly adhered to by ladies in attendance and their male guests. Straight men are admitted in drag only, and with the likes of Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys donning his finest before now, it's not a night for prudes. The "best dressed" prize provided by cult outlet Sh! will be hard fought among dollar bills, latex, feathers and much skin. If you're not transfixed by the madames mechantes and their array of gravity defying costumes, also there to attract your attention will be the racy Canadian disco boppers Lesbians On Ecstasy, Sydney drag king singer Sexy Galexy and a fistful of DJs who've made their names at London staples Ghetto, Trailer Trash and beloved girlie superclub Smack.

After what feels like forever, Sud is finally breaking the 07 scene with its first live gig of the year. Along with some of Sud's regulars (Lakuti, Nick Craddock and Brittiski to name but a few), the release of its new remix record features tracks by Body Code (aka Portable) and Cassy, who will be gracing the decks as well. For any of you who might be unfamiliar, Cassy's clean and cool but hard-hitting minimal house style has made her a favourite on the continent where she has a regular spot at Berlin's Panorama Bar -- which also released her debut CD last year. Complex and inventive beats that break apart just out of sync mean her distinctive sound is as listenable at home as on the dancefloor -- just another feature that sets her apart from the crowd. Portable promises a set that should keep you on your feet with a dizzying array of drumbeats that is intriguingly dark yet buoyant enough to keep things interesting.

NB: for Panorama Bar fans out there catch another one of its residents, Prosumer, playing a three-hour set the same night in London at Bar 54.

A key player in the second wave of techno artists to emerge from Detroit, Carl Craig is currently enjoying somewhat of a deification thanks to a number of epic remixes over the past few years. His immense throbbing reinterpretation of Theo Parrish's wonky "Falling Up" grabbed people's attention and further remixes of Goldfrapp, Rhythm & Sound and especially Delia & Gavin cemented Craig's position as "the remixer" of last year. Such is the hype over Craig that Juno Records chose him to remix the first of their 10th year anniversary releases, the string soaked classic "In The Trees" by Faze Action (which is all over the clubs right now). Given his status, it's clear clubbing behemoth Fabric would be the only London venue Craig would play, and recent sets at NYC's Demon Days show he has shaken off the reputation for poor mixing. As well as Mr Craig, this Saturday sees a miniature French techno invasion in the shape of Shonky and Jennifer Cardini. Shonky has been a regular on the Paris club scene since the late '90s whilst Cardini has held down residencies in Paris and Barcelona and worked with Miss Kittin. You might even get to hear some sneak previews of the Shonky / Cardini co-productions that have been in development the past few months.

NB: additional support comes from Fabric resident Craig Richards and Marco Carola.

A particularly unattractive stowaway aboard a deep space flight kick starts Sigourney Weaver's acting career and introduces us to the much repeated HR Geiger design of Alien. Enjoying a short re-run at the ICA, Ridley Scott's 2003 director's cut of Alien is, despite added scenes, around two minutes shorter than the original. Whilst none of the haunting yet adrenaline fuelled sequences are missing, the film is cleaner, tighter and the shadows darker for the cut throat shave that Scott administers to it. Danny Boyle's new film Sunshine (released in London on 06/04) has been likened to the patient pulse of Alien, which explains why Boyle will give an introduction to the 1st April screening, talking about why Space, apart from no-one hearing you scream, is an ideal setting for a thriller.

NB: Alien also screens at the ICA on 02/04 and 03/04 at 8:30pm. A little later on Sunday at 5pm catch Danny Boyle again as he gives an interview on-stage following an advance screening of Sunshine.

Unemployment, homelessness and loneliness -- who said that life is not like the movies? Certainly not the absolute master of Nordic deadpan humour, Finland's Aki Kaurismaki. Ever since he burst into the international cinematic consciousness in 1989 with the bonkers Leningrad Cowboys Go America, Kaurismaki has created a completely individual genre of film: the Helsinki pathos-comedy. Resolutely anti-Hollywood in approach (and after refusing his second Oscar nomination this year as a protest against Bush, he is proving he is not afraid of the big boys) his films are consistently understated miracles of filmmaking. Sombre topics and urban settings are offset by the comic absurdity of life and the most incredibly non-blockbuster-looking actors you are ever likely to see on the big screen. This marathon will screen Kaurismaki's themed "Finland" trilogy: 1996's Drifting Clouds (tackling unemployment), the 2002 Cannes Grand Jury prize winner The Man Without A Past (homelessness) and a preview of his new film Lights In The Dark (loneliness) -- all interspersed with (possibly well-needed) vodka breaks -- before a Q&A with Kaurismaki himself. "Life is short and miserable. Be as merry as you can" (Drifting Clouds) -- come see if you agree. Completely unmissable.

SPILL is London's first international festival of experimental theatre, live art and performance. The major drive in performance is to take art directly to the public and, as RoseLee Goldberg describes it, performance is "live art by artists". Performance was used by artists throughout the 20th century to break down their affiliation to particular art movements and to explore new ways of engaging with the world. In the '70s performance became the obvious voice for conceptual artists who wanted an art of ideas and not of objects that can be hung or sold.

Now artistic director Robert Pacitti wants SPILL to be all about ideas, and to bring them to you he has assembled the finest contemporary performance artists. The programme ranges from video installations such as Three Duets to durational work like And On The Thousandth Night, and from site specific work such as Grand Finale to seminars and feasts. SPILL's HQ is in the Shunt Lounge; open to any bearers of SPILL tickets, you can meet artists over a drink and make your own contribution to Future Classic. Also at Shunt from 7th April Julia Bardsley will explore the intimate dialogue between audience and performer for audiences of 12. At Soho Theatre from 10th April, Forced Entertainment, the godfathers of the British performance scene, present Exquisite Pain based on a text by Sophie Calle. More to come in our next issue, but in the meantime check out the SPILL website and if asked don't be afraid to spill the beans.

NB: runs from 02/04 till 22/04.

Citing the Burning Man festival in Nevada as a near-religious experience that erases social boundaries, encourages participation, yet has no basis in a historical or religious festival, Barbara Ehrenreich deems it possibly the best modern example of a collective joy event. In her new book, Dancing In The Streets: A History Of Collective Joy, she explores the cyclical nature in Western society of the creation, and then suppression, of collective joy events. Sounds a bit clunky, but as she rightly points out, there is no word in English to describe these interactive group events, such as raves, gigs, Mardi Gras and the Love Parade, where you "lose yourself". The cycle she describes in her book stems from a fear within the powerful elements of society of uncontrollable mass hysteria, or riot, so that throughout history these generally spontaneous events have been downgraded into less interactive, more controllable gatherings of people thus losing their spirit of collective joy. Ehrenreich, a prominent writer (New York Times, Time Magazine, The Progressive) and political activist from the US, discusses these ideas with British writer Geoff Dyer, who is also a regular visitor to Burning Man. Bound to be an uplifting evening, Ehrenreich and Dyer explore how we can revive the spirit of carnival and the intense communal pleasure which it is capable of releasing.

The British Art Market generates around £500 million a year. Where does the money come from and where does it go? Who are the insiders responsible for shaping the scene and how do they exercise power? At this event, two influential figures of the contemporary art world, director of the Serpentine Gallery Julia Peyton-Jones and writer and broadcaster Louisa Buck, give their valuable insights. Peyton-Jones is uniquely placed to shed light on the market, having trained as a painter and transformed a public gallery into a cutting-edge art venue with projects such as The Maybe, a collaboration between Cornelia Parker and Tilda Swinton (1995), and her extremely successful Serpentine Pavilion series (which last year was the rather curious balloon designed by Rem Koolhaas and this year will be by Olafur Eliasson and Norwegian architect Kjetil Thorsen). Louisa Buck brings years of experience to the discussion, having published several insider guides, such as Moving Targets and Owning Art: The Contemporary Art Collector's Handbook (co-authored with Judith Greer). Together, they will discuss how the burgeoning art market is affecting the practice of artists, galleries, journalists and collectors, and the experience of the public audience. This event is your chance to get up close and personal with these ladies as the ticket price includes dinner and drinks with the speakers.

NB: the following night catch AC Grayling (04/04) as he poses the question of whether or not religion has a place in the modern world.

It should come as no surprise to discover that not only did Thomas Hirschhorn train as a graphic designer, but that he was also part of the Paris Communist design collective Grapus. He soon left to join his heroes, the Russian Constructivists, Schwitters, Mondrian and Warhol, on that radical yellow brick road of Art. There is no doubt that he is an artist of enthusiasms, a lover of intellectuals, a protester, yet he is also a practitioner of the art of grunge. Think of it as Beuys via Rauschenberg. There is no alchemy here, rather Hirschhorn's protests arrive via the primary chemistry of cardboard, collage and brown tape. This time though he's discovered the "flat daddy"; it's as if someone else is doing their very own Hirschhorn! So the Swiss artist has happily "re-appropriated" these cardboard stand-ins to use in his own human-size, gallery-filling dioramas. Here, war is his theme; little vignettes of waiting areas, populated by numbered people and soldiers, hint at our current existential, and probably real-world, state. But that is not his only strength: it is the sheer joy and inventive pleasure that Hirschhorn brings to our eyes, that is the true feast.

NB: runs till 07/04.

Very Abstract And Hyper Figurative examines the artifice of exhibition making, presenting a humorous take on the hackneyed question of whether or not painting is dead. Curated by Jens Hoffman, it is the first in a series of fictional museum departments to be created as a means of exploring the possibilities of institutional critique and challenging received notions of genre and style. The list of exhibiting artists reads like a roll call of contemporary European and North American painters, and yet the manner of presentation -- dark green walls, two huge display cases of the type one would find in the British Museum -- pronounces their work as artefacts from an art-historical moment long gone. Nonetheless the exhibition gives such a brief but succinct overview of recent painting, that it would be impossible to index each stroke of genius; suffice to say that Clare Rojas' Museum Show, 2006, with its witty depiction of rather ludicrous paintings hanging in a gallery, neatly encapsulates the spirit of the show. However, the more time spent examining the contents of the immaculate glass cabinets, the more it struck us that the backs of the paintings, clearly visible through the gaps in the salon-style hang, were just as interesting as the front.

NB: runs till 14/04.

If you missed it last time, don't make the same mistake. This collaboration between the incredible Sylvie Guillem, one of the world's greatest living dancers, and Akram Khan, phenomenal genius of kathak, is a brave experiment for both. The critics were divided on this show and seemed genuinely surprised by Guillem's unconventional use of her technique and some stuff she didn't learn at ballet school, and her and Khan's monologues. The enormous stage at Sadler's Wells becomes an intimate space as these two fill the stage with their spiritual and passionate choreographies. Guillem's technique is so refined it's hard to see where the dancing stops and the woman begins. Khan's trance-like moves give way to some raw personal admissions. The structure of the piece is of solos interspersed with chat -- at times they both address the audience, and Guillem addresses Khan with a wonderfully comic icebreaker. There's a climactic duet that pulls the two dancers together in a battle of weightless limbs to become one exquisite being. Just one thing seemed odd: the singer at the beginning. Why? The audience is here for Guillem and Khan and only those two! This piece definitely has cult status written all over it, never mind what the critics said. Stop reading and buy tickets now.

NB: runs from 17/04 till 22/04.

When "the mission" was terminated for Throbbing Gristle 25 years ago it seemed certain that these self-styled "wreckers of civilisation" would not be crossing swords again. However, their exile is over, and despite their divergent interests in the interim -- Chris 'n' Cosey, Coil, Psychic TV -- the troubled voice of TG today is still able to unfurl the demons of their past. A group that refused to play by any rules -- releasing a box set of 24 hours of live recordings, stirring up controversy at the ICA in 1976 with their "Prostitution" show -- it's chilling how their new recordings remain so vital. Macabre cabaret songs, with their toxic lyrics, contrast against the radioactive and evocative instrumental passages with Genesis P-Orridge's feeble, faintly inept vocal lines intoning desperate lines of missed connections. Dark, swamp deep melodies echo around sticky granular pulses and rhythms, burying themselves in layers of nervous energy. Surprisingly, though, it's an uplifting adventure, perhaps more of a sign of our darker times, but the mythology of industrial culture remains true to its maxim -- "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

NB: catch Throbbing Gristle at the ICA in a couple of months when they play a live series of public "recording sessions" on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd June. Each session will be approximately two hours long and limited to 140 people. Tickets are only available by emailing tgubertix@aol.com, marking the subject box with "ICA Recording Session".

To buy Part Two - The Endless Not 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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