As part of Museums And Galleries Month, the British Museum and Art Fund have joined forces to devise a debate that will hopefully lift the PC lid of contemporary cultural concerns. A notable panel of writers, artists and cultural critics will throw a series of questions -- such as how socially motivated today's self-obsessed artists really are, to the lack of high profile ethnic minority artists -- on the table as they get to grips with how and whether cultural arts practices influence our sense of self and society at large. Playwright and critic Bonnie Greer will chair the discussion as the likes of Ralph Rugoff and Deborah Swallow (directors of the Hayward Gallery and Courtauld Institute Of Art, respectively), Londonstani author Gautam Malkani, 2004 Turner Prize nominee Yinka Shonibare and freelance writer Munira Mirza have their say.

NB: on 12/05 (3:30pm) at the National Portrait Gallery catch the Culture And Class debate with Grayson Perry and Meredith Etherington-Smith among others.

This event celebrates the publication of At The Same Time: Essays And Addresses, a collection of Susan Sontag's writings on culture and politcs, including some previously unpublished pieces, and is a tribute to Sontag, who died in 2004. The ICA is of course the only place in London where an event like this could take place. Where else to celebrate the life of the novelist (The Volcano Lover, etc), essayist and critic (On Photography, Against Interpretation, Styles Of Radical Will, etc), film director (these films do sound hard going and perhaps not as successful as her prose works, not least because they are in Swedish), and human rights activist. Speakers at this event are the actress Fiona Shaw; John Gray, Professor of European Thought at the LSE and author of Straw Dogs and Black Mass; Ed Vulliamy, Guardian journalist and author of Seasons In Hell: Understanding Bosnia's War; and Brian Morton, writer and broadcaster. It's an unusual line-up, but then, Sontag's life and prolific output is at the very least "unusual". She was, and remains, unique.

Are all writers' ideas recycled? There's a distinct possibility they are, says The Poetry Society's Under The Influence series. But what does this mean for contemporary poet's practice today? How do they engage with, learn from, explore and acknowledge poets of the past? In this talk, Jo Shapcott looks at Marianne Moore. Shapcott is The Poetry Society president, co-editor of Emergency Kit: Poems For Strange Times, and a poet with a striking take on contemporary chaos. In tangent, she considers the quirky, witty style and manner of a little-known poet, praised by Auden and Eliot. The author of The Waste Land reflected that "Miss Moore's poems form part of the small body of durable poetry written in our time". To see whether his views are still relevant today, attend this literary talk.

The TEAM -- Theatre of the Emerging American Moment -- are a young American company who share with their illustrious compatriots The Riot Group a commitment to producing texts with big ideas and a passionate vein of theatricality. Quite simply, it's exciting to be in the room with them. Particularly In The Heartland was scratched at BAC as part of its development before returning to Edinburgh and gathering the TEAM's second Fringe First award. The company undertakes a fantastical examination of the soul of Americana, where a family of abandoned children rebuild their lives by fostering new parents: Bobby Kennedy returned from the dead, a pregnant woman who may have been abducted by (or actually be) an alien, and a businesswoman called Dorothy who's fallen out of a plane back into Kansas. Its aim is clear but never heavy-footed, rather it's playful, clever and sparkling with electric performances -- a new Battle Hymn for an America that may never exist but we hope might just. It returns now to BAC for one night only as part of this year's Burst festival and it might be your last chance to see it in this country. Don't miss it.

A Spanish film, with no recognizable stars, turns into a sublime thriller that begins with a pan away from a girl's body discovered dead amidst a field of sunflowers. First time director Jorge Sanchez-Cabezudo shows the flamboyance of a more experienced filmmaker, stitching together a non linear plot that shows the girl's death through a variety of news reports and flashbacks. Nominated for three Goyas and coruscating with the feisty temperature of its sun beaten acting, on one level this is flirting with the psyche of the Spanish people, exposing the limitations of their homogeneous lifestyles. More superficially it's rolling with tension and burns with the violent colours of the blistering summer in which it's shot. Spanish film is due some resurgence. Maybe this is the first viable contender.

NB: after the preview screening director Jorge Sanchez-Cabezudo and actor Carmelo Gomez will discuss the making of this film. Night Of The Sunflowers is released in London on 11/05. Also of note this week is the re-release on the same day of The Battle Of Algiers and the BFI's special screening of Bill Douglas' Trilogy on 14/05.

Such is the ever changing nature of what is considered hot and exciting on the London clubbing scene, it should count for something any promoter who is able to get through a year of dealing with massive ego DJs and shady club owners. With this in mind, it's no mean feat that Furthur Promotions are celebrating five years of club nights that make girls sweat. Furthur's club nights have ranged from intimate little jumpoffs in the sweatbox that was the sorely missed Asylum to Halloween raves in cavernous warehouse clubs, with an emphasis that has always been on booking the most exciting acts to perform. Hot Sauce this Friday is no different, with Kid Acne headlining ahead of his hotly anticipated album being released on Lex Records. The Kid is joined by label mates, the eponymous Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip who have been getting serious love for their "Thou Shalt Always Kill". To complement this, Hot Chip favourite Grovesnor (his track "Nitemoves" kicks off their new DJ-Kicks mix) is coming down to DJ and is joined on the decks by Furthur big cheese John Power and Hot Sauce residents tonypoland and Ice Monster.

Following last week's Transitions Dance Company presentation at Laban, another young people's company brings a fresh take on contemporary dance. With dancers aged 17 to 22, NDT2 is the younger sibling of the more revered NDT1. Headed by Swedish Anders Hellstrom it retains links with the past by bringing new work by Jiri Kylian (former Artistic Director of NDT). In Sleepless, Kylian uses the set as part of the dance allowing for unexpected play on the human form. His second piece in this programme, Chapeau, was created as a present to Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands (known for her collection of huge hats); set to the music of Prince, this promises to be a regal treat. Resident choreographic duo Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon have created Sleight Of Hand, a piece that brings together elements of the professional and personal lives of the young dancers with music by virtuoso Philip Glass. This mixed bill will also feature work by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin, who has made work for the likes of Lyon Opera Ballet and Rambert Dance Company. Bringing the best of the international performance scene and with such an extraordinary mother company, NDT2 is surely the gifted child of contemporary dance.

NB: NDT2 perform at Sadler's Wells from 09/05 till 12/05. For other dance action this week, don't miss Tanja Liedtke at the Southbank Centre (11/05 till 13/05).

There is something of a "good old days" nostalgia attached to the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll vernacular that assisted a consecutive series of lost generations in finding means of excess that suitably expressed their ideals, while pragmatically paving the way for more contemporary libertine behaviour -- the Free Love movement springs to mind. Likewise, the music industry has aligned itself on the side of indulgence as a necessary enabler of the creative process, not to mention an institutional stalwart. It would seem that excess has found a new form in the 21st century. The indulgences that follow the "It" crowd to parties are more akin to top-secret yogic breathing techniques for celebrities only, and the organic macrobiotic no-fat low-carb super smoothie. So are these two sides of the same indulgent coin? Or has the age of the die-hard rock 'n' roller (live fast, die young and leave a good looking corpse) succumbed to the tsunami of free trade, ethically sourced nutrition for mind and body (live long, stay fit and leave a neutral carbon footprint)? Join Simon Munnery, Sebastian Horsley, John Noi, Travis Elborough, Alexander Mayor, Simon Clark and Tamara Tyler for a discussion on the subject and a performance by The Whoopee Club.

Philippe Parreno's very different approaches to art-making (video, "animated" cartoon drawings and a sculptural balloon installation all feature here) collectively orbit the subjective nature of "reality". It takes a moment to locate the source of clunking, whirring and scratching reverberating through the gallery. A tiny video screen reveals the mechanically complex orchestration of a beautifully simple idea -- to re-programme an automated antique dummy to write the words: "What do you believe, your eyes or my words?" Parreno uses repetition and familiar media devices to remind us of how we define the real. A photograph of "the text" appears on the wall beside the first video screen (the piece is shown on each of the three floors). The handwritten irregularities of the type differ between this documentary image and the video footage, reminding us that there is always more than one version of the truth. Parreno's subtle appeal to question carefully what we see remains utterly relevant.

NB: runs till 12/05 (Philippe Parreno is also exhibiting at Gasworks in the group show Slash Fiction which runs till 27/05). Make sure you catch Ian Hamilton Finlay's exhibition at Victoria Miro which also ends on 12/05.

Scottish pioneer of the illuminated word as visual art, Ian Hamilton Finlay's surreal poetic fragments cast a mix of coloured neon light on the walls of the otherwise staid gallery upstairs. The green of Water-cooled, watercress merges with the cold Blue Water's Bark and other poetic fragments, alliterations, haikus and metaphors. It's for you to associate, dissociate and choose to read or just to take in the radiating tones. But if you thought Finlay's work was merely playful and formal, the selection of neon poems and wall inscriptions on the ground floor is likely to have you reassess this perception once you've recovered from being blinded by the artist's erudition. Inspired by facts and figures of the French Revolution, Matisse chez Duplay, Je vous salut Marat and Ici on danse are replete with references to Robespierre and Lamartine. But that's partly the charm of this deceptively simple work -- dig into the depths of semiotics and history as much or as little as you wish, just like the gardens Finlay used to cultivate, his works can always just be appreciated for their beauty.

NB: runs till 12/05. Make sure you catch Philippe Parreno's exhibition at Haunch of Venison which also ends on 12/05.

Sometimes names can be deceiving: mention Pat And Trevor and most people would assume you were talking about kids TV presenters with an annoying penchant for teethy grins, not a trio of art student promoters who have done parties on rooftops and in warehouses and had hot new bands like Late Of The Pier and Metronomy perform. This Saturday sees Pat And Trevor move proceedings to the more salubrious surroundings of the ICA and have invited Brooklyn girls with fringes Au Revoir Simone down to play. Their recently released album, The Bird Of Music, put out by Moshi Moshi, is very much in the twee electro pop mould that is very popular right now. They even count David Lynch as a fan. Word has it the promoters plan to have the girls from ARS descend from the ceiling at the ICA using some intricate pyrotechnics. Bands playing in support include Plaster Of Paris, coming on like Edith Piaf out of Camberwell, and Train Chronicles, one man's tales of troubled love in Nunhead. Pat And Trevor have even managed to secure the much sought after Tapedeck to DJ for the night. Previous parties have been something akin to a roadblock so early arrival is recommended!

NB: Au Revoir Simone also play The Luminaire on 20/05 (7:30pm).

Things get interesting down at The End this week as Border Community launch their new monthly night. Founded in 2003, Border Community quickly made a name for themselves as one of the more open minded techno labels out there with an output that ranges from pin-point electro to fuzzy ambience. Label boss and star producer James Holden leads the line-up and is joined by the brilliant Nathan Fake, whose Drowning In A Sea Of Love album, a sublime mix of electro and psychedelic synths, was one of the electronic highlights of 2006, and Bonn based Dominik Eulberg, who has a hat-full of excellent techno releases to his name on the highly rated Traum Schallplaten label. Taking care of business in the lounge is another KF favourite Kieran Hebden, better known for his experimental electronica as Four Tet, whilst AKA is being handled by Luke Solomon and Swag's Chris Duckenfield, two producers and DJs who can both hold their own when it comes to the more interesting varieties of house and techno.

Construct is the UK debut of choreographer Tanja Liedtke, known for outstanding work with Australian Dance Theatre. She is probably best known in the UK for her performance in DV8's The Cost Of Living -- she was the one in the opening sequence memorably greeting the audience while her limbs were being manipulated by three men. In Construct, Liedtke examines the technical yet curious act of building a home, a relationship or a dream. Three dancers perform -- Liedtke is joined by two former Australian Dance Theatre performers, Kristina Chan and Paul White. Liedtke was the winner of the 2006 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography. She has created and toured work in Australia, Germany and Brazil. In Australia they're talking about her in the same breath as Kate Champion and Chunky Move, so definitely worth catching this in London before it tours.

NB: Construct is performed at the Purcell Room on 11/05, 12/05 and 13/05. For other dance action this week, don't miss Nederlands Dance Theatre 2 at Sadler's Wells (09/05 till 12/05).

Bill Douglas had the most appalling childhood. His mother was confined to a psychiatric hospital from the day he was born, his father had another family and the young Douglas endured extreme hardship growing up during the Depression-era of the '30s in a mining village outside Edinburgh, living first with his ailing maternal grandmother and then his icy paternal grandmother. Yet the child Douglas was fortunate enough to discover the colour, the glamour and the dream-like escapism of the movies, and this, it turns out, gave him enough to survive. This whole devastating childhood-into-adolescence experience is searingly and profoundly caught on black and white celluloid in Douglas' breath-taking Trilogy -- My Childhood, My Ain Folk and My Way Home.

Comrades was Douglas' only feature, telling an epic tale of a group of agricultural trade unionists in 1830s Dorset, the Tolpuddle Martyrs, and how they fought for a just wage and were rewarded with deportation to Australia. With gorgeous camerawork from Gale Tattersall, it perfectly captures the soft light of an Indian summer and the bleak, frozen winter-wastes of Dorset, before transporting us to the blinding, oppressive heat of Australia. The story is in the detail and Douglas gives an intimate account of the faces, lives and relationships of the Martyrs and their families -- as witnessed by the character of the Lanternist (Alex Norton), an exponent of pre-cinema entertainment who crops up in various guises throughout the film. It's truly magical, almost spiritual film-making.

NB: author, broadcaster and journalist Andrew O'Hagan will introduce the screening of Trilogy on 14/05 at 8pm. The BFI's Bill Douglas Retrospective runs from 14/05 till 28/05. Also of note this week is the re-release of The Battle Of Algiers (11/05) and the special screening of Night Of The Sunflowers (10/05).

Tiga's purveyance of infectious electro disco reached a thumping crescendo last year with the playing to death of "You Gonna Want Me" and the debut LP Sexor, which was co-produced with Soulwax. However, someone along the line has adjudged that the appetite for the Canadian's wares is even higher now, so both are getting a re-release with even more punch -- this time the likes of Van She put their tech slant on things, while the uber fashionable Tocadisco bring some Germanic darkness to the party. It's probably a fitting counterweight to the new double CD release -- which unavoidably has the feel of a canny commercial turn -- that Tiga is playing a gig for free. The good people of Bugged Out -- favourites of Erol Alkan and suppliers of a killer Simian Mobile Disco compilation -- will be hosting Mr Sontag as he seeks to provide some medicine for the Montag blues. The remedy is likely to consist of pop cuts such as the memorably camp transmogrification of Nelly's "Hot In Herre" with the Scissor Sisters, a few pulsing anthems like "Brothers" and undoubtedly some fresh material from Tiga's second album, which is also getting the Dewaele brothers treatment. It would be churlish to complain that you're being given a rehashed sales pitch when you're getting all that for free.

The Guardian's Jonathan Glancey calls him a "distinguished modern architect", although you may never have seen one of his buildings (there are none in the UK; Denmark houses his National Archives complex). You can hear him speak though: AIA Gold Medallist (2006) Antoine Predock's lecture "West East" sees this New Mexico and Columbia-educated architect talk about how his work sits in an international context in a lecture which celebrates many years of cooperation between the AIA and RIBA. Famed for sculpting precise models in clay, the renderings of his building are solids melting into air, with more than a hint of Diller + Scofidio's Swiss Expo fog pavilion about them. However, they also have assured materiality, and are compelling without resorting to trickery or one-liner gestures, something he has in common with Rafael Vinoly (another American-based architect you'll hear more about as he?s now working in the UK). It's always a lie to characterise the work of a mature and noteworthy architect in one line, so put simply: he'll speak inspiringly about how architecture can be a meeting place for cultures. See you there.

German photographer Joachim Schmid's extensive collection of found photographs would likely fill several more galleries the size of No 8 Great Newport Street. Dating back to 1982, this ongoing series (the most recent shown here was found locally at the time of installation) offers a curiously shaped slice of social history featuring hundreds of people whose lives were at some point photographically documented and the evidence lost or discarded in cities across the globe. In the other works represented here, this fatalistic sensibility has been replaced with a more specific approach where Schmid utilises the formal "accidents" inherent within the developing process: the 1991 Photogenetic Drafts series has been created from incongruous, re-spliced halves of studio portrait negatives that had been cut by the original photographer to prevent further use. A five-minute video documentary reveals that Schmid is critical of the way that fine art and other disciplines categorise creativity -- the line between photography as an art form and a journalistic practice is a notoriously difficult one to call -- preferring to focus on the impact photographic and digital media have on everyday life.

NB: Joachim Schmid: Selected Photoworks 1982 - 2007 runs till 17/06. Next door, at No 5, the theme continues with a multi-media showcase of three current magazines that provide a public platform for the collection of found images. American publication Found Magazine, for example, publishes the photos, notes and homemade bits its staff and readers find and their reactions to them. Some of these items are available for us to finger, which throws the complex territory of voyeurism into sharp relief.

Writer, editor and publisher Dave Eggers is perhaps best known as the author of the memoir A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius (which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction) and the novel You Shall Know Our Velocity. He is also the founder of McSweeney's, an iconic independent publishing house. His most recent novel, What Is The What, is the subject of this event. The novel is based on the real life story of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee and member of the Lost Boys of Sudan programme. As a boy, Deng was separated from his family when the civil war in Sudan wiped out his village. He fled on foot with a group of other young boys (the "Lost Boys"), taking him to Ethiopia, a refugee camp in Kenya and finally to the United States, encountering danger and hardship along the way. Both Eggers and Deng will discuss the novel, the human impact of war in Sudan and, perhaps most interestingly, the alchemy of blending non-fictional and fictional elements and the form of literature this fusion creates. This is a unique opportunity to hear the testimonies behind a fascinating project.

Between Bridges hosts a small but intriguing gathering of works by the all but forgotten Charlotte Posenenske, a concrete-minimal artist currently going through something of a renaissance, whose work will be exhibited in Documenta 12. The tiny angular gallery space, which makes ingenious use of an entrance hall and stairway, provides an interesting shell for the major work on show: Series DW (corrugated cardboard), 1967, an unlimited series of sculptures created from the same six technoid shapes bolted together. Reminiscent of large air-ventilation ducts, the works are fabricated from economic, industrial materials such as cheap sheet metal or corrugated cardboard, which afford the simple reproduction of Posenenske's concept in an infinite number of combinations. A series of small works on paper show a lighter, personal touch, where Posenenske imagined the flow of air through these unending ducts. Posenenske articulates this current through the same straight lines and block edges, with paint swiftly applied by a palette knife. Always aspiring to grasp and communicate the usefulness of art, in 1968 Posenenske eventually became disillusioned with its potential for change and gave up her artistic career to became a social scientist. However, this mini-retrospective is testament to the importance of Posenenske's early ideas about the reproduction and variability of objects, which truly came into fruition just a few years later with '70s conceptual art.

NB: runs till 24/06.

Elliot Smith's story is one of the more poignant in recent rock history. A gifted, introverted singer-songwriter from Portand, Oregon, Smith was fast-tracked from worthy indie obscurity to the full glare of the MTV spotlight courtesy of his song "Miss Misery" and its high profile enhancement of the Academy Award-nominated 1997 film Good Will Hunting. Though he subsequently established a solid fanbase and released critically acclaimed albums of Beatles-esque craft etched with fragile beauty, Smith was a serial depressive with a damaged psyche who sought solace in a cocktail of obliterating drugs. His untimely 2003 death (from what were thought to be self-inflicted stab-wounds to the chest) was widely viewed as the valedictory act of an artistic soul no longer capable of wrestling with demons.

Inevitably, then, a pall of melancholy hangs over New Moon, a collection of wonderful outtakes from Smith's prodigious "golden" mid-'90s, during which he released Elliot Smith and Either/Or -- his two benchmark albums. Always a prolific writer, these 24 songs spread over two CDs are considerably weightier than cutting room floor rejects -- indeed, there's nothing here that couldn't have graced either of the albums from which they were culled. Typically, if not revealingly, the apparently bouncy "Georgia, Georgia" contains the line "Oh man what a plan -- suicide!", while "Talking To Mary" and "Whatever (Folk Song In C)" navigate a resonant slough of despond worthy of Leonard Cohen and everywhere lambent folk rock jangle meets candid apercu with a sincerity that's as effortless as it is affecting.

To buy New Moon online click here.

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