This festival is very diverse and takes place at many locations throughout London. The obvious events are 100% Design, Designersblock, Tent London but below are some of our picks:

Blueprint Magazine Design Talks @ Royal Festival Hall
20/09 (6pm) Matthew Collins, John Maybury, Ross Lovegrove and Sebastian Wrong.
21/09 (6pm) Zaha Hadid and Amanda Levete.

Financial Times Design Talks @ Royal Festival Hall
21/09 (8am) Vittorio Radice, Murray Moss and Florence Delorme.

Trash Luxe @ Liberty
20/09 till 23/09

New Designers Selection @ The Gallery at Oxo Tower
20/09 till 23/09

Established & Sons: Elevating Design @ P3 Space Westminster University
till 24/09

Size + Matter: The Materials Project @ Southbank Centre
15/09 till 25/09

LDF: Edits 2007
till 25/09

Grandmateria @ Gallery Libby Sellers
till 14/10

NB: the London Design Festival runs from 15/09 till 25/09. For the official guide click here.

Two of the most alluring nominees for this year's Forward Prize for Best First Collection get together for a rhyme off at the Whitechapel Gallery this Thursday. In the blue corner Melanie Challenger (about to move to Antarctica as artist in residence for the British Antarctic Survey) reads from her lyrical and otherwordly collection Galatea. And most definitely in the red corner, Liverpudlian Eleanor Rees whose poems in Andraste's Hair transform and mythologise her hometown. Fellow Merseysider Chris McCabe joins them with his cynical response to British politics, The Hutton Inquiry. Folk genie Songdog will be performing tunes from their latest album The Time Of Summer Lightning. Hosted by Salt Publishing and Penned In The Margins, a duo responsible for some of the most vibrant and entertaining events in London's literary scene.

This month, Dochouse and the BBC present a unique weekend festival exploring films that cross the line between fact and fiction. Leading lights in this new wave of docudrama filmmaking will be discussing their works and the issues that surround dramatising reality. The renowned director of Ghosts (2006), Nick Broomfield, will be talking about his unconventional preference for casting non-professionals, particularly those that have experienced similar situations to the film's characters. Stephen Frears, director of The Queen (2006) and The Deal (2003), will lead a discussion about fictionalising contemporary history. And, to close the festival, internationally acclaimed director, Pawel Pawlikowski, will make a special appearance to highlight the creative influence that his early documentary work has had on his fiction films.

There will also be an opportunity to see older examples of the genre, such as Roberto Rossellini's magnificently poignant Rome, Open City (1945), Orson Welles' rarely screened F For Fake (1974) and Gillo Pontecorvo's recently reissued The Battle Of Algiers (1968). And, in recognition of his groundbreaking 1966 television drama, Cathy Come Home, Ken Loach will open the festival before a screening of the film itself. By bringing together such an eclectic mix of works from film and television, the festival provides a fascinating exploration of the ambiguities and difficulties raised in crossing the line between fact and fiction. Given the imminent release of Michael Winterbottom's A Mighty Heart, the critical acclaim of Ghosts and the huge box office takings for The Queen, such an exploration of this flourishing genre is much needed.

NB: Crossing The Line runs for three days, 21/09, 22/09 and 23/09.

Charles Gayle's career in many respects epitomises one of the underlying qualities on which the language we now call jazz was founded. Coming literally from the streets, homeless and playing the saxophone in order to scrape a living, Gayle never had the luxury of a considered approach; perhaps more importantly, what he did have was a belief in music and the desire to play. Working things out day by day, he spent over a decade creating his own vocabulary based partly on spirituals in the subway and on the streets of New York. As a result, his playing literally cuts through more superfluous questions that often occupy jazz, such as musical style or intent. It's impossible to question the validity of his music or dispute where it's come from; the sheer power of Gayle's conviction and his belief in music itself are all consuming. There are very few performers currently, in an increasingly careerist musical world, who will themselves to such a level of transcendence. Great musical movements were founded by men like Charles Gayle.

NB: Charles Gayle plays with bassist William Parker and drummer Mark Sanders.

Contentious borders (both geopolitical and theoretical) connect the practices of Jean-Luc Moulene and Walid Raad who both record facets of societies operating under the laws of war. Moulene, in his ongoing series Products Of Palestine (currently on show at Thomas Dane), carefully positions and photographs everyday consumables that can be bought within but not exported from the occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Raad, meanwhile, has created The Atlas Group -- a fictional foundation under the auspices of which he collates and archives information relating to Lebanon's recent past. The two will come together to discuss the role of the "document" in their work -- an historically loaded word that alludes equally to notions of truth and justice as modes of visual representation. The notion of art as a mediatory facility between ideologies is hardly new or neutral territory but the process of deciphering its role in this context would make for an equally interesting subplot.

NB: Jean-Luc Moulene's Thomas Dane show ends this week (21/09).

Never ones to get stuck in a stylistic rut, Sud Electronic keep things moving at their seventh birthday party this coming Friday with a typically refreshing set of guests. Quite why Parisian John Thomas has never played on these shores is a bit of a mystery, given his deft reputation as both a producer and DJ which has earned patronage from techno luminaries Jeff Mills and Laurent Garnier. His set, at least, will represent a slighter tougher direction for Sud; though, on the other side of the coin, they have Michel Baumann aka Soulphiction playing live (with vocalist Suzana Rozkosny) and also DJing. Baumann's a key figure in the German house scene, running the impeccable Philpot imprint as well as producing under guises such as Jackmate and Manmade Science. His Soulphiction alias is reserved for his most soulful output -- think Theo Parrish or Moodymann as references. With Sud residents Nick Craddock and Lakuti joining the musical dots, and independent cinema screenings in the second room, it should be a satisfyingly diverse evening, which Sud's vibrant crowd will no doubt lap up.

NB: also on the same night catch Bleep43's fifth bday party with Surgeon and Legowelt. On Saturday night catch Lost's Spacebase with Luke Slater at Plastic People.

Thomas Saraceno has found a solution to the world's exploding population. It consists in building flying cities as a real and sustainable alternative to urban life. But the Argentinean artist doesn't spend all his time with his head in the clouds. He actually builds structures and finds uses for them. This time around, he intends to launch a large experimental solar dome which was originally planned for the 2nd International Artists Airshow back in June but was postponed because of bad weather. Since this is planned as a new dawn for humanity, it will take place at 6h45. That is am for the night owls! But worry not, accommodation in the Essex wilderness is planned by the lovely Arts Catalyst people so this can become the most enlightening pyjama party you'll ever attend.

NB: to register send an email to airshow@artscatalyst.org or call 020.7375.3690.

If, only a few years ago, the mushrooming of cramped artist-run spaces seemed to symbolise London's gallery revival, the growing commerciality of the the city's art world, fanned by Frieze Art Fair and its disciples, has ushered in a new period where a gallery's survival depends on the ability to expand and multiply. James Hyman, a modest, respected gallery with a solidly British stable of artists, continues this trend by upgrading from St James's to Mayfair, where it can claim to be the area's largest space. The centrepiece of the opening show, however, is decadently ephemeral and ironically non-commercial: Red On Green, by YBA artist and Turner Prize nominated Anya Gallaccio, is a carpet of 10,000 red scented English tea roses that is ultimately destined for the compost heap. Even if you wanted to buy it, you couldn't: Hyman bought the rights to it on the occasion of his wedding. For this reincarnation -- it hasn't been shown since 1992 at the ICA -- the romantic gesture seems tinged with a certain sickly melancholy: the roses were sourced from the same grower who supplied Diana's Memorial.

NB: runs till 27/10. The opening show will also feature works by Marc Quinn, Patrick Caulfield, Ivon Hitchens, Alan Davie, and Derrick Greaves.

Short of describing its constituent elements, it is difficult to critique Hiraki Sawa's new work without reverting to the kind of gushing found in the middle paragraph of most solo exhibition press releases. The installation occupies six screens and the full Chisenhale space, and the content is longer and more ambitious than previous animations which won the artist his reputation from the moment his work first came to the public eye in EAST and at New Contemporaries a few years ago. The focus has shifted wider from the intimate interiors in these new films, but while the content includes industrial landscapes and turbulent meetings of nature and human effect, Sawa does not lose the tone of fantastical domesticity that set him apart -- yet avoids the pitfall of creating schmaltz. KultureFlash's own Jennifer Thatcher (also the co-director of talks at the ICA) gives a talk where she discusses the elements of play and fantasy and the constituent ingredients in Sawa's animations. (Thatcher has also written an essay in the exhibition catalogue.)

NB: Hiraki Sawa's exhibition runs till 14/10.

With the festival season over and the frankly hardly worth mentioning summer done and dusted it's time to head back en masse into our now smoke-free nightclubs. Except where to go? It seems like every week another one of London's bigger clubs are being closed down or facing redevelopment into flats. Some are still going strong, though, and this week the Scala, a former Art Deco cinema in King's Cross, launches the latest addition to London's clubbing landscape, Strobe, catering for the city's buoyant electro, indie and disco-punk scenes. It's quite a party as well with well established names such as Southern Fried's Cagedbaby (DJ set), Dubsided's Trevor Loveys (previously one half of Switch) and new DFA signings Mock & Toof rubbing shoulders with fresh faced upstarts such as City Rockers's electro-punks The Ghost Frequency, Mylo approved synth rockers Cobra Dukes and even KultureFlash's own Tony Poland and John Power. In fact, with around 15 DJs and 7 live acts across the venue's three floors, there should be something for everyone.

In case there was any doubt that techno is finding an entirely new generation of fans, the deep and dubby sounds of 23-year-old Sven Weisemann should provide adequate refreshment. The self-taught protegee musician began life writing jazz and soundtracks before segueing smoothly -- with the use of ambient and naturalistic sounds ? into the rich vein of German producers with a penchant for Detroit. His breadth of taste feeds into a warm and very analogue approach that should go down well with clubbers weary of the vast slews of indentikit electro-house. Like Weisemann, Mojuba's track record is short, but already showing a similar appetite for blending genres and pursuing the sort of intelligent techno Villalobos and Dear have pioneered. The label has already caught some attention among DJs with the release of Oracy's "Mind Dance", and this debut UK performance for Weisemann and the label (courtesy of To The Bone) is likely to give them some legs on the live circuit.

There is no press release accompanying this eclectic show at Modern Art, crowded with countless heads and bodies on plinths. Instead, a simple dictionary definition serves as some sort of explanation or accompanying text: "ef?fi?gy n: a dummy, often roughly made and intentionally amusing or insulting, representing somebody or something disliked or despised." The effigies populating the gallery are weird, funny, disturbing and at times unutterably beautiful. Delicately dominating the room, Francis Uprichard's Green Figure stands spindly and bright green. Kiki Smith humorously presents a curious collection of little bronze owls that might have been modelled from Plasticine. Staring at each other from opposite ends of the gallery are two intricately worked portraits of Hitler by Michael Raedecker. Klara Kristalova's stoneware bust The Rights Of Spring is a woman's head, the smooth surface of her skin shiny and delicately cracked, thick green vines dripping down like tears from each eye socket. Perhaps the most gruesome and beguiling head is the faceless Sarah Altmejd by David Altmejd, the edges of the gaping hole where a face should be encrusted with paint, jewellery and glitter. Offering over 30 incarnations of the model, the doll and the dummy, Effigies does its best to startle and amuse.

NB: runs till 04/10.

It must be a tough task trying to maintain a certain suspense in a story where almost all of your audience knows the outcome. But for the most part director Michael Winterbottom succeeds by virtue of his subtle film making, a raw and riveting docudrama treatment, and last but not least Angelina Jolie's able performance. Most of the drama thus comes from this "when will she find out" scenario that depends on the impotence of the protagonists which in turn implies that you cannot and will not ever understand the tangled interconnected mish-mash of organisations and affiliations that comprise those who follow the Jihad. And as we followed the onscreen characters flummoxing in a warren of clues, lies, hearsay and dead ends, we too got lost about 35 minutes in only to emerge some 30 minutes later absolutely none the wiser. But beautifully shot by Marcel Zyskind on location in Karachi and employing a cast of many non-actors the film is worth seeing if only to get a handle on our world where extremism that belongs in the Dark Ages still exists in religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, causing pain, havoc and death.

NB: A Mighty Heart is released in London on 21/09. Also of note is the BFI Southbank's special screening of Whitnail And I on 08/10 (6:30pm) with Richard E Grant, Paul McGann and Bruce Robinson.

Yann Martel's The Life Of Pi is one of the more famous Booker Prize winners, but no less controversial then usual. (In addition to later accusations of plagiarism, the winner was accidentally announced on the award's website a week before it was supposed to be -- hmmm... see this year's short-list debacle involving AN Wilson.) The book is the curious story of an Indian boy, Pi (short for "Piscine", known as "Pissing" by the bullies at school but "3.14" to his friends) who is shipwrecked and left afloat on a lifeboat with only a Bengal Tiger called Richard Parker for company. A hybrid of fable and adventure story, the book's fundamental themes include philosophy, religion (Pi decides to be Hindu, Christian and Muslim all at the same time) and faith. Martel comes to the Southbank to give an illustrated talk with Tomislav Torjanac, the Croatian winner of an international competition to illustrate a new edition of the book. Chairing the event is Erica Wagner, literary editor of the Times and one of the judges who voted Martel winner. Perhaps this latest edition of such a prominent title will finally spark a trend for the adult illustrated book.

NB: Yann Martel is also giving a talk on 28/09 (7:30pm) at Miller's Academy.

Jas Shaw and James Ford seem to have risen quite successfully from the ashes of quirky electronic act Simian; Mp3 blogs and label bosses can't get enough of Simian Mobile Disco remixes at the moment. And while their debut album Attack Decay Sustain Release might rely heavily on the big singles like "Hustler" and "It's The Beat" on first listen, the album grows on your ears with time. Ford even finds time amongst all this to produce current music press darlings Klaxons and the Arctic Monkeys. After a summer of smashing it in festival tents, SMD are putting on a special one off show at the impressive Scala before they continue their worldwide/UK tour. Despite the reservations you would have about seeing electronic artists performing live, which can be nothing more engaging than two men and a pair of laptops, their recent set at Bestival proves they have enough knob twiddling devices to pique your interest should you stop dancing for a second. Providing support are the XX Teens, who have gained enough notoriety to have a major print company bully them into an early name change.

NB: should you crave more of the same, Bloggers Delight are holding the official afterparty down the road at The Key, where you can bear witness to an all too rare SMD DJ set.

The Chrysler Building. The Flatiron Building. The Brooklyn Bridge. The Guggenheim Museum. Arguably the most famous metropolitan area in the world, NYC is an intricately woven urban gesamtkunstwerk whose iconic buildings and streets have provided the background for uncountable films, works of art, and record sleeves. Once the epitome of High Modernism, the urban fabric of the city that never sleeps was a frantically stitched-together quilt of modernist skyscrapers and brownstones until 1963, when the destruction of Penn Station to make way for Madison Square Garden spurred the creation of the Landmarks Preservation Commission -- a body with powers to "designate", or list, important structures to save them from demolition. Some argue that the Commission's work has made New York the mythical Gotham that it is today, while others hold its conservative attitude responsible for killing the architectural energy and organic growth of the metropolis. Either way, this exhibition about the heritage of what Rem Koolhaas (in Delirious New York, his retroactive manifesto for Manhattan) has called an "addictive machine from which there is no escape" is a reminder of the need for planning debates in a post-9/11-year when NYC is simultaneously rebuilding its wounded core and designating more buildings than in the past 20 years.

NB: runs till 03/10.

The cut-out motifs that have dominated Simon Periton's practice to date have been sprayed as opposed to sliced into life in his latest body of works. To call this seductive group "paintings" is slightly misleading as the motley assortment of familiar organic and pop cultural motifs caught between sheets of glass bear closer resemblance to graffiti. The inherent glamour of their dramatic tonality and reflective surfaces is kept in check by the dark combination of imagery and dense compositional layers. Local and global politics meld in the muted pictorial soup: the cloudy form in Meteorologist is a stamp-like silhouette of the queen, her '70s self delineated by the negative shapes left by scalpels; while Neighbourhood Witch taps into film and small town fantasy as bony digits extend from a yellow curtain to finger with a decaying floral form. Periton plays with art-historical notions of beauty and media image-making to draw us to the surface of these images and beckon us further into the personal subtexts lurking just beneath.

NB: runs till 04/10. Simon Periton's work can also be seen at the V&A (till 01/2008). From 02/10 make sure you check out Sadies Coles' special off-site solo exhibition dedicated to Matthew Barney at 53 Central St., EC1 (till 17/11). This show has been programmed in conjunction with his Serpentine exhibition which opens this week (runs till 11/11).

Really it's always difficult to figure out why some films capture the public imagination and become mythic, while others don't. Certainly Withnail And I was probably just intended to be the English equivalent of a college/coming of age comedy. A story of two young, slovenly and broke actors, taking a "repose" and visiting Uncle Monty, it is really a mad-cap comedy (mostly provided by Withnail aka Richard E Grant) and culture clash (city vs country, posh vs working class, actors and civilians), not to mention the "genteel" drinking that spawned the infamous drinking game, all rolled into one. Even for 1987, the predictable bits -- buddy comedy, normal bloke/weird bloke relationship, alcohol-induced car chase -- are transformed by Bruce Robinson's fresh writing and the then relatively unknown frisson between Grant and Paul McGann (who even went on to play Dr Who). However, for us it is Ralph Brown's hilarious turn as a drug dealer, complete with Camberwell Carrot, that steals the show. Now's the chance to re-enjoy all those delicious lines and moments in the presence of Grant, McGann and Robinson, who will be doing a post-film talk with Sue MacGregor -- although unfortunately our new smoking laws prevents us enjoying a Carrot in their presence!

Music In Twelve Parts is an epic born out of the mould created by early minimalist pioneers such as Morton Feldman and La Monte Young. It is a cycle of work that perhaps owes a large amount in conception to Young's Well Tuned Piano, where the listener is guided, element by element through a carefully composed set of structures which finally elucidate an entirely new compositional world. Like these early minimalist prototypes, Music In Twelve Parts experiments with extremes of perception in musical form although it establishes Philip Glass as a composer who is working with his own unique elements to achieve these ends. Unlike his later work in which more familiar crescendos and cadences re-appear, Music In Twelve Parts upholds a more medative template, where each strand of musical content is carefully analysed for its emotional impact and stripped bare of any ornamentation in order to try and achieve the maximum effect. Although a far cry from the works that would ultimately make him a household name it remains interesting to hear the work of a composer still engaged in a conceptual interrogation of his art.

NB: this is the first time the work has been performed in London in its entirety since 1985. At 3pm before the concert catch Philip Glass in conversation with Radio 3 Broadcaster Robert Worby and Goldsmiths College Head of Music Keith Potter. This event is part of the Barbican's Glassworks, a weekend of events celebrating Glass' 70th birthday. (Most of the events are sold out so book tickets for this one now.)

The Emperor Jones is about a self-proclaimed monarch who absconds after his own people turn against his rule. On the first night of his escape, alone in the ominous jungle of a Caribbean island with only five bullets in his handgun, Jones is haunted by ghosts of the victims of his crimes and realisations of his personal fears. Almost 100 years old, Eugene O'Neil's play still seems brave and cutting-edge with its complex exploration of human greed and vanity. This rather grand and "cool" production of a small but powerful play keeps you on the edge of your seat with surprising visuals, supported by an impressive set, and an incredible performance by Paterson Joseph as Brutus Jones. Joseph shows an amazing range of expression, moving from self-obsessed emperor with no respect for others to a scarred and insecure criminal unable to cope with his own fears. Music, created by Sister Bliss (Faithless) and performed by a live ensemble, adds a whole new layer to the production, raising the hair on the back of your neck. This is definitely a well spent 70 minutes, not a moment of boredom.

NB: runs till 31/10.

Four years spent unearthing and documenting an astounding array of curiosities throughout the USA has resulted in Taryn Simon's An American Index Of The Hidden And Unfamiliar. Shot with a large-format camera and expertly lit, every photograph is both an important historical document and a visual feast. Each image reveals surprising and provocative information. We are in an operating theatre where a Palestinian woman has a hymenoplasty to convince her fiance her virginity is intact. We see a mass of medical waste containing syringes and other infectious detritus, which workers are paid $12 an hour to sort through, often pricking themselves on needles. The haunted eyes of a mentally disabled black convict stare out at us from within an "exercise cage" on Death Row. A cinematic photograph of a corpse in a forest could be mistaken for a carefully staged Gregory Crewdson, except it is not a fictional place -- it is "Corpse Wood", where bodies donated for medical research are left to rot for scientists to study decomposition. Simon, at only 32, carries on a tradition of American documentary photography that reaches back to Walker Evans. Simon is a photographic equivalent of Michael Moore, producing an important visual record of the dark secrets of 21st-century America.

NB: runs till 11/11. Catch Taryn Simon on 08/10 (7pm) when she gives a talk at The Photographers' Gallery. (Steidl has published a book to accompany this body of work).

The son of a French designer and an American quiz champion, Brooklyn-based Julian Velard comes at classic piano-based pop from some acute angles. A magpie-eyed observer of human foibles, his songs can hymn the debris at the back of the couch as readily as love, landmines or a dream about a zoo. Having served time as a kindergarten teacher and in the Paris Department of Sanitation, Velard brings a crucial patina of Weltschmerz to what might otherwise be an overly saccharine palette; his rich, baritone voice an MOR marriage of Van Morrison, Elton John and Billy Joel. While he's not exactly straining for underground credentials, Velard scores with the timeless, adhesive quality of his songs, decked out in pithy, urbane lyrics. On this four-track debut (essentially an hors d'oeuvre for a full album next year) we get plenty of urbanity and pith, and quite a lot of piano. We also get melodicas, xylophones, ukuleles and clarinets. Catchy opener "Jimmy Dean & Steve McQueen" adds Hammond organ, horns and tyre screeches to the mix, while the seductive "Joni" comes on like indie Stevie Wonder with its easy-going chorus and background clavinets. "Little Demons", meanwhile, is an almost Springsteenian paean to urban stoicism and "A Dream" is a thoroughly redemptive Sunday morning reverie that aches like an early Tom Waits essay and is the best thing on the record.

To buy The Movies Without You 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.

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