Renowned writer, performance poet and the (reluctantly branded) father of dub poetry, Linton Kwesi Johnson comes to Foyles to talk to Caryl Phillips about his new book, Foreigners. Born in St Kitts, raised in Leeds, educated at Oxford and now living in New York, Phillips' previous work has, perhaps unsurprisingly, focused on the class, culture, immigration and identity issues of the African diaspora. Foreigners conforms to practice by following the lives of three black men struggling to become accepted as residents in England: British boxing champion Randolph Turpin, Nigerian fugitive David Oluwale and Francis Barber the Jamaican slave who later became Samuel Johnson's manservant. The book's subtitle "Three English Lives" evokes society's questioning of what it means to be British today. Both Phillips' and Johnson's work habitually cover the discrimination of Caribbeans in Britain (Johnson's Inglan Is A Bitch is considered a classic and his track "All Wi Doin Is Defendin" correctly foresaw 1981's Brixton riot. Phillip's Crossing The River was shortlisted for 1993's Booker Prize). With the present focus on gang, knife and gun crime in the news and the continual media coverage of the history of the British Empire and immigration, the meeting of these two giants of black British literature is right on target.

NB: this event is free but you must email events@foyles.co.uk to reserve a ticket.

Corporate logos and, indeed, some political strategies employed by governments big and small, share attributes in common -- specifically, they are presented to the masses as urgent consumables. Whether the urgency is derived from the individual's desire to identify with a certain product or brand or from a society's yen for quick solutions to much larger problems, both concepts operate upon a sliding scale of consumer hysteria, depending on the urge to consume to mask the inherent flaws in the product. Canadian author and journalist Naomi Klein brought both public and private attachments to brand identities in the West to the attention of the masses with her book No Logo, a book whose frank language and accessible criticisms served as a call to arms for the unsuspecting consumer in the year 2000. She will be speaking with Madeleine Bunting (The Guardian) at the Queen Elizabeth Hall about the release of her new book Shock Doctrine: The Rise Of Disaster Capitalism, which takes a hard look at the various smoke screens and opportunistic economic tactics employed by governing bodies in order to implement unpalatable policy.

NB: next week on 19/09 (7:30pm), also at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, catch Peter Ackroyd as he gives a lecture on his new book Thames: Sacred River and then discusses his work with Sam Leith, Literary Editor of the Telegraph.

Mice Parade was originally the solo project of New Yorker Adam Pierce (Mice Parade being an anagram of his name), who has also drummed with The Dylan Group, HiM and mum, and runs the Bubble Core label and distribution company in New York. Originally a kind of tinny, lo-fi tribute to Tortoise and the Chicago post-rock sound, over seven increasingly authoritative albums Pierce has carefully expanded the group and its aesthetic horizons. Now fleshed out to a full (and almost full time) band, featuring two drum kits, vibraphones, laptops and the ethereal vocals of former mum chanteuse Kristin Anna Valtysdottir, their recent eponymous album (FatCat) is arguably the band's most accessible record to date. Like the new record, the live Mice Parade is much more than a chin-stroking indulgence, proffering a bold, vivid spectacle, teeming with Afro-Asian polyrhythms, Pierce's dexterous, sub-Flamenco guitar, various electronic flourishes and, of course, the celestial ululations of the charming Ms Valtysdottir.

NB: Glasgow's The Twilight Sad and North Dakota's Tom Brosseau support Mice Parade.

Perrennial Sprawl return after a summer break (post-Interplay and SonicRecycler events) with another unique buffet of sound art. This more intimate event is a showcase for three unique electro-acoustic musicians. A resident in Rome, headliner Mike Cooper is currently on tour celebrating his 65th birthday. His legacy of work is a who's who of collaborations (Eddie Prevost, Keith Rowe, David Toop, Steve Beresford, Max Eastley, Lol Coxhill), a swathe of releases and explorations in exotica, improv and blues, the backbone of his sound being the lap steel guitar. Ambient Electronic Exotica is his self-made genre and the subtitle of recent solo performances, often accompanied with film or video -- like half-remembered Hawaiian vacations through a digital filter. Equally eclectic is violinist and laptop artist Phil Durrant, who, as an improvisor, has various projects -- with John Butcher, as part of Ticklish, and also as a member of MIMEO with Kaffe Matthews, Christian Fennesz, and Peter Rehberg. Also on the bill is a Mexican, Israel M. Besides winning the Prix Ars Electronica's Award of Distinction in the Digital Musics this year, he has performed worldwide, notably at Mutek MX and Prix Ars (this month), blending field recordings and digital processing, with occasional dips into electronic pop (as Nebula 3).

Legacy is the young Georgian director Gela Babluani's follow-up to his acclaimed debut 13 (Tzameti). This time he's working in tandem with his father, Temur Babluani, and their film is a moving, simply-crafted exploration of the cultural and economic differences bubbling away just below the surface between the "affluent, modern West" -- in the guise of a group of two young French women and one man -- and the "not-so-affluent, more traditional West" -- rural folk in western Georgia. One of the French women, Patricia (Sylvie Testud), has inherited a ruined castle in Georgia. This precipitates a mini road-movie deep inside the Georgian countryside, along with her two French companions and a Georgian translator, Nikolai (the stoically impressive Pascal Bongard), and an encounter with a world of ancient customs and strong characters. The rickety bus they are travelling on also plays host to a mute racketeer -- trading in black-market cigarettes, drink and food -- an overweight, obnoxious drunk, and a grandfather and grandson pairing with an empty coffin in tow and an old blood-feud to settle. Naturally, Patricia and her friends are fascinated by the old man and his young relative and impose themselves on their mission with tragic consequences.

NB: Legacy is released in London on 14/09. Other films of note are Le Serpent, Helvetica, Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9 and the special Ken Loach season at the BFI (ends 18/09).

To someone as anarchically open minded as Alvin Curran, the thought of flooding the Thames in between St Paul's and Tate Modern with a troop of musicians to ritualistically re-work one of his radio pieces of the same name from the 1980s seems like an uncharacteristically nostalgic concept. As Peter Marsh points out, like Morse code and the handwritten letter, we no longer have the need for the fog horns that feature in Curran's original Maritime Rights, their function having been methodically rendered obsolete by the advance of technology. Which might make you question the relevance of it all, given that the genesis of the original work seems so conspicuously distant and the landscape of London so utterly distinct. Indeed, perhaps the only thing that joins the two in a tenuous thread to be sewn across time and space is the high-church of artistic practice. One can only hope that Curran's great skill as a craftsman in sound and surfer of context will transcend the pretext with something altogether unfathomable. At any rate, symbolically at least, it would seem that the fog is still with us.

DJ Shadow thought hip-hop sucked in '96 but it's not really much better these days. A Gucci clad Kanye West seems intent on annoying people out of buying his records with his arrogant poncery. Go to a hip-hop club and you're likely to hear the same staple bangers that were being dropped five years ago. J Dilla's untimely death is mourned by a nation of bedroom producers by shoddily aping his sound. Of course a positive byproduct of this stagnation is the emergence of artists attempting something different with the hip-hop blue print -- be it DJ Kentaro beat juggling blog house at his gigs or talented young London things like Miss Odd Kidd rapping over electro. Then there's acts like Infinite Livez whose career seems the antithesis of modern day hip-hop ethics -- less get rich or die trying, more rapping about bedding small plastic ponies. His latest longplayer Art Brut Fe De Yoot on Big Dada is the weirded out results of an improv session with Swiss electronica act Stade. Catch him and his hand puppet hype man Barry Convex spitting out sex rhymes about white wee wee on stage at the Whitechapel Gallery this Friday with DJ support from the Big Dada stable.

Fans of intricate cut-up electronica should take note as US West Coast electronic maverick Daedelus (aka Alfred Weisberg-Roberts) is back in the UK this Friday at the always welcoming Luminaire. One of the leading lights of an ever evolving LA scene (comprising of artists like Busdriver, Dwight Trible and Ammon Contact) that has taken hip-hop as a starting point and spun off in a thousand different directions, Daedelus has blended together everything from disjointed scatter-shot beats to ragtime melodies whilst working with some of the best leftfield rappers out there, such as MF Doom and Mike Ladd. His recent London appearances have been rapturously received affairs with his own home built kit getting a serious working over, much to the delight of those who have been lucky enough to get hold of tickets. Don't miss out this time around.

NB: the London Design Festival runs from 15/09 till 25/09.

Le nouveau roman, aka the new novel, a French literary movement not entirely dissimilar to the American Beat Generation, or the experimental novels produced by writers such as JG Ballard in Britain in the '70s, explored the relationship between style and narrative, and opened up the novel as a concept beyond being simply a narrative vessel. Frequently aligned with novelist and filmmaker Marguerite Duras, Alain Robbe-Grillet uses themes of murder and betrayal as a backdrop for his non-sequential explorations of the human psyche, resulting in ambiguous conclusions. Robbe-Grillet's extensive body of novels and screenplays hone in upon the darker qualities of mankind, and form a stalwart core for non-linear narrative structures in literature, film and visual art. While often very difficult to follow, Robbe-Grillet's films offer an intense and dream-like interpretation of the relationship between thoughts and actions.

Over 15th and 16th September, a series of events around Robbe-Grillet's films and life's work will take place at the Serpentine and at the Institut Francais. The weekend kicks off with tributes to Robbe-Grillet from, among others, Michel Auder, Olafur Eliasson, Liam Gillick, Dan Graham, Philippe Rahm, Sarah Morris, Carsten Holler and Cerith Wyn Evans. Robbe-Grillet will then be in conversation before the UK premier of his 2006 film Gradiva (C'est Gradiva qui vous appelle). His disquieting and visually stunning L'Eden et apres will be screening on Sunday (a new print), followed by a conversation between Robbe-Grillet, Jean-Max Colard and Hans Ulrich Obrist.

NB: this event takes place on both 15/09 and 16/09. The special Serpentine screening of Gradiva will be complemented by a month-long season of Robbe-Grillet films at the Institut Francais (runs till 30/09).

The growing popularity of more out-there noise musics continues unabated with the wave of Scandinavians, via labels such as Rune Grammofon, Smalltown Supersound and Bottrop-Boy, currently straddling the line between jazz, drone and black metal; but in these hearts of darkness there is a definite cold beauty. At this latest [no.signal] night Norwegians Lasse Marhaug and John Hegre, in their Jazkamer guise, take on board themes such as urban degradation and decomposition, beyond the distortion pedal barrier. Almost ambient, except maybe the volume, they mix up their axes, layering field recordings, drones and sheets of white noise. Able support is by Martin Durgan, who, through his own Birthbiter label, produces a slew of electronic noise releases as Putrefier, improvising pulsating works of using homemade gadgets. Also supporting are Cheapmachines, aka Philip Julian, who is at the cutting edge of generative software, long-form drones, and uses contact microphones enhanced with damaged appliances.

Bugged Out's final warehouse outing of the year is a curious trio of a very new name and two names more beloved to Farringdon's clubhood than the East End. Highly magnetic to London's most electro-obsessed postcode, Parisian bright young thing Brodinski cut his teeth writing and mixing for the fluokids blog, popular for its excursions into stylised glitch and tech-hop. Amid the mountain of bedroom mixers, though, he's one of the few who looks set to shake off the blog house tag and ditch homeclubbing for proper crowds. Brodinski was probably still eating processed food when Andrew Weatherall was busy dicing acid and techno and putting the fuzz on Screamadelica. One wonders whether one of rave's old boys saw a chance to reclaim the glow sticks, as he's rarely seen at Shoreditch gigs. Tomas Andersson is also more ordinarily playing uncomplicated house bangers than chopping up samples for Nathan Barleyettes, but perhaps the psychedelic Wayfarer waifs are ready for something Germanic by now. With tracks like "Washing Up" and "Mot Matsalen", the worst he can do is give them a good old nod-a-long.

NB: Fabric fans should check out Luciano and Matthew Dear, who play on the same night. For those looking for old skool rave madness there is Bang Face with Altern 8 and Hardfloor on Friday night at Electrowerkz and on Sunday Berlin up-and-coming duo Digitalism play live at The End.

This may be the first feature-length film about a typeface, but what you have to keep in mind is that in many ways Helvetica isn't a typeface, it's the typeface and Gary Hustwit's documentary, released to coincide with Helvetica's 50th anniversary this year, is a fitting homage to this near ubiquitous font. Adored, used -- and sometimes rebelled against -- for its clarity, modernism and elegance, Helvetica found itself quickly adopted on its release as peculiarly apt for the zeitgeist of the time -- what is perhaps surprising is that it has remained so to this day (witness the iPhone, and the fact that apparently American Airlines is the only airline not to re-draw its logo within the last 40 years). The film interviews a whole host of graphics luminaries and is part introduction to type design, part graphic design history lesson and part serious meditation on typefaces and type use in general -- go see it and understand the amount of thought that goes into good graphic design.

NB: Helvetica screens at the ICA till 27/09 (released via Plexifilm UK on DVD on 06/11). Other films of note are Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9 and the special Ken Loach season at the BFI (ends 18/09).

A riveting Gallic thriller directed by Eric Barbier that has more twists than a Chubby Checker record. It held us entirely captivated from start to finish. Based on Plender, a novel by English writer Ted Lewis -- who also wrote Jack's Return Home subsequently re-titled Get Carter -- the story tells of a typically French professional photographer, beautifully rendered by the quite excellent Yvan Attal, who, having married the daughter of a wealthy tycoon, finds himself fighting in the divorce courts over the custody of his two children while struggling to continue working. And if that's not stressful enough, just as the shit hits the proverbial fan in walks a character from his past, the entirely menacing ex French Foreign Legionnaire Plender, brilliantly realised by French comedian Clovis Cornillac, who throws a poisoned spanner the size of the QE2 into his troubled works. A prime example of dark and dreadful modern French film noir that, even though it has its implausible moments, will still, if you let your guard down, take you for a bumpy white knuckle ride down into the murky depths of retribution and reprisal.

NB: The Serpent is released in London on 14/09. Other films of note are Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9 and the special Ken Loach season at the BFI (ends 18/09).

Classic Greek Drama usually doesn't make for an easy Monday night's entertainment; full of insanity and pointless cruelty it explores the darkest, most savage and primitive of human instincts. However, as proven in this new production, adapted by David Greig and directed by John Tiffany for the National Theatre of Scotland, it can also be full of humour, fun and camp. Believe it or not, there is even room for a drag queen -- Dionysus (Alan Cumming) -- and a full gospel choir on stage. This rather outrageous and daring production feels a bit like a mix and match exercise, taking elements from musicals, dance theatre and stand-up comedy with questionable final effect. It is certainly an entertaining evening, with an accessible introduction to the play and Greek mythology, but on the other hand it does let itself down with some unjustified silliness. Tiffany's production is very strong visually and it is a bold theatrical statement that one may love or hate. The highlight of the evening is the performance by Paola Dionisotti as Agave, which leaves the audience almost breathless.

NB: runs till 22/09.

Luke Sutherland is a musician and novelist whose latest Venus As A Boy is compellingly adapted by actor Tam Dean Burn, a co-production with the National Theatre of Scotland. It's a fable about the life of modern cupid Desiree whose pursuit of love and self-fulfilment burns bright and who has the divine power to touch everyone (and some) with transcendent visions of love. Heartbroken growing up on Orkney, he runs to London and into Soho, where he becomes a diva prostitute, trapped and dying, realising that he is mutating into gold. The act of transformation is the beating heart of this story. Burn starts by simply saying hello and introducing Sutherland -- who will power a lush live fiddle and guitar accompaniment -- as he steps carefully into the role of teller of a true story we assume is fiction. Burn, as ever molten brilliance as a performer, transforms effortlessly into Desiree and almost all the characters who circle his life -- one exception a young black child victimised in Orkney who is silently, autobiographically played by Sutherland. It's an enthralling piece -- funny, moving, pure gorgeousness.

NB: runs till 22/09.

With his extraordinarily inventive films, Matthew Barney has a tendency to seduce and repel people in equal measure. Repulsion is triggered by impenetrable narratives, slow pace and often maddeningly abstruse subjects -- seduction through the consistently beautiful, surreal and visionary images he creates. Tradition may say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but that seemingly generous estimate is dwarfed by the 546-page explanatory, analytical tome that accompanied Barney's five-film Cremaster Cycle -- a volume that is a must not only for the serious aficionado, but also for those just wanting to figure out what the hell was going on. Drawing Restraint 9, part of his 15-part Drawing Restraint project, continues this seduce/repel dichotomy. A virtually wordless narrative, which unfolds at Barney's familiar glacial pace, the ideas explored are perplexing and the characters -- Bjork and Barney himself -- are totally enigmatic. But mesmerising images, extraordinary costumes and -- particularly -- Bjork's haunting soundtrack are once again irresistibly seductive. Resist the urge to attempt to make sense of it, and just allow it to wash over you.

NB: this special screening will be introduced by Matthew Barney and Hans Ulrich Obrist. If you cannot make it catch both men in conversation again at the Serpentine the following night (Drawing Restraint 9 is released at selected London cinemas on 28/09). Both events have been programmed in conjunction with the Serpentine's Matthew Barney exhibition that runs from 20/09 till 11/11. In parallel to this show Sadie Coles will present a special off-site solo exhibition dedicated to the artist at 53 Central St., EC1 (29/09 till 29/11).

Sarah Sze's masterful playground is a kingdom of crayons and thread, light bulbs and cotton buds, tea bags and water bottles, all arranged in the most intricate installations. Her sprawling work has an unparalleled wit that can yield hours of exploration in what looks like the den of a science crazed child, free to experiment with household items. A Certain Slant and Tilting Planet merges into a spectacular piece that spans both floors in an arrangement of webs, nests and nooks made out of wool and extension cords, paper tents and bubbling terrariums. The scale of the installations ranges from monumental to microscopic in any one given work, allowing for an experience that gets more and more satisfying as one approaches the pieces. What appears to be a mobile phone or a lamp is, upon closer inspection, a cardboard model. A subtle thumping sound is made by a leaf caught in the breeze of a fan. Sze's installations are giggles shared during breaktime and secrets whispered next to the merry-go-round. Meet me at the gallery after school!

NB: runs till 22/09.

Arni Haraldsson's investigative documentation of Erno Goldfinger, the man and his buildings, presents the myths that shroud them both through photography, popular film, books and archival material. Goldfinger was one of the key players in the Modern Movement and practitioners of Brutalist architecture. He designed such hotly disputed buildings as Trellick Tower and Balfron Tower, the first high rise accommodation of their kind to be built in London. Haraldsson's grim and grainy photographs show the strong jutting structures slightly saddened by creeping weeds and rust deposits leaking like dried blood from the reinforced concrete. Alongside Haraldsson's pictures are displayed collections of Goldfinger memorabilia -- Trellick Tower T-shirts, James Bond posters, books showing just how far the mythologised character of the architect crept into the public imagination. A short film where one resident of the Trellick describes a chance encounter with Goldfinger in the lift is an enlightening glimpse of the man who haunted the towers that he built, taking up residence for short periods of time and wandering around them incognito, secretly interviewing their inhabitants to test their success.

NB: runs till 30/09.

An imposing wooden cube fills the Rokeby space. An Aladdin's Cave of everyday objects that took five weeks to construct is reached via a makeshift pathway of pallets. Four fans blow out black bin bags from the central section, whilst Bach plays on two turntables positioned symmetrically on the floor, the dulcet tones of the classical record distorted by two swinging light bulbs suspended from the ceiling, intermittently brushing the vinyl. Graham Hudson's oeuvre is a cocktail of sculpture and installation art, its base ingredient the Duchampian tradition of the readymade, mixed with a hint of John Bock and a little Tomoko Takahashi. Hudson translates the readymade into a contemporary context, using discarded objects from the street such as a used tube of acrylic paint, or a paint-splattered boiler suit, to create an almost living, breathing work of art. He captures the Zeitgeist with his awareness of the surrounding environment and importance of recycling, demonstrated here and in his 2006 Nairobi residency. A gallery attendant sits inside the structure, working away as Bach infinitely repeats. "Doesn't the music drive you insane?" we enquire. "No it's strangely therapeutic!" he replies. A fitting description for Hudson's fantastical creations.

NB: runs till 02/10.

Complicite honcho Simon McBurney here collaborates with a team including composer Nitin Sawhney and mathematician Marcus du Sautoy to explore meeting-points. A Disappearing Number is focused on the fascinating encounter between Indian mathematical prodigy Ramanujan and English don Hardy, springing into meetings between Indian culture and dissolution of Empire, between past, present and future (always McBurney's obsession) and between a mathematical reality and our human approximation. It's dizzying to watch a brilliant ensemble confidently combining different theatrical languages, from physical theatre to interactive video projection to an underpinning music driven by stunning tabla, although sometimes its very virtuosity can make it slightly impenetrable. The theme of the inter-connectedness of everything is perhaps too dominant but there's an undeniable power in the accumulation of images replayed, resonating beyond curtain. A counterpoint narrative of a futures expert and his mathematician wife struggling to have a child, to make one plus one equal more than two, is deftly played but perhaps strains too hard to demonstrate an analogy between mathematical function and human relations that the piece itself argues is impossible. But these cavils are partly because Complicite have set their own bar impossibly high. No doubt this is theatre-making of scope and ambition that demands to be seen.

NB: runs till 06/10. On both 20/09 and 27/09 catch Simon McBurney as he gives a post-show discussion with various different guests.

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