Sarah Nicolls may not yet be a household name, but she typifies a generation of performers and musicians whose work spans a variety of cutting-edge contexts; from her group with electronica artist Mira Calix to interpreting Berio, Nicolls is always looking for any new challenges contemporary music has to offer, but always maintaining a clear sense of purpose. This concert brings together some of the UK's most innovative creators in live electronics performance and aims to introduce the acoustic grand piano into an expanded sonic arena. A total of nine collaborative partnerships will include experimental mavericks Richard Barrett and Michael Edwards -- both phenomenally virtuosic live electronics performers and composers; Ruth Wall, a harpist using preparations and electronics to enlarge her palette of sound; Professor Michael Clarke who is leading research into complex programming and technological innovation in creative thinking and Jonathan Green, a young composer/technologist investigating the use of wireless sensors which Nicolls will wear during her performance.

Go to any beginners art history class on Modernism and you will learn that two important factors shifted the course of painting: a growing awareness of the medium and its physicality, and photography -- the medium that "freed" painting and re-defined how we see the world. Inspired by Charles Baudelaire's 1863 essay, The Painter Of Modern Life, in which the Frenchman called for the modern artist to turn away from history painting and capture the "transient, the fleeting, the contingent", Ralph Rugoff's exhibition, The Painting Of Modern Life, begins in the '60s and brings together artists who paint from photography. That is -- in Baudelaire's terms -- artists who are attempting to capture our fleeting moments. It sounds like a bit of clever history by the Hayward's newish director. After all, photography was what Gerhard Richter, one of the artists in this show, called his "clutch to get to reality". Pause On The Image, the conference that accompanies the exhibition, brings together critical heavy hitters like Hal Foster and KultureFlash's own Barry Schwabsky, with participating artists like Luc Tuymans, and the catalogue's various essayists. Expect it to be a sparky weekend. But where's TJ Clark?

NB: The Painting Of Modern Life runs till 30/12.

At the turn of the millenium, Anthony McCall's oeuvre existed, much like history itself, between concept and lore. Though he stopped making work for 20 years, documentation and accounts continued to circulate of his groundbreaking "solid-light" films -- deceptively simple 16mm projections of stop-frame animation that no less than exploded the "monolithic" experience of the cinematic screen. In the seminal Line Describing A Cone (1973), the film of a dot becoming a line becoming a circle becomes, in space, a "real-time" growing cone of light. Shifting the focus of the viewing experience from the image to its material and spatial qualities, McCall moved the audience, in all senses of the word. Not only have these works been described as beautiful and magical, something akin to a communal experience has also been said to materialise. It's not difficult to see the value of McCall's work, with its prescient and spectacular criticality, re-staged for a contemporary context. Fortunately for us, he has also returned to his art practice and now the Serpentine is mounting a retrospective of early (16mm) and more recent works (digital). Time doesn't often throw up a second chance so don't miss out.

NB: Anthony McCall will be in conversation with artists Graham Ellard & Stephen Johnstone and curator Mark Godfrey. The McCall retrospective runs till 03/02/08.

Competition: we have two pairs of tickets to give away to the event for two people picked at random who can tell us when/where Line Describing A Cone was last shown in London.

Having seemingly satisfied one of his more esoteric whims with the excellent Von Sudenfed project, veteran post-punk mumbler Mark E Smith returns to the day job this week playing live with his band The Fall. Having existed in one form or another for over 30 years now, the stories that surround the band and its mercurial front-man may be as legendary as they are legion but infamy and good copy can only sustain a career for so long. Happily the band's hefty 26 album back-catalogue stands as testament to their relevance and continued influence on younger generations such as Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party and LCD Soundsystem. Despite his legendary status Smith seems determined not to rest on his laurels and album 27 is already in the can and set for release next year. This week's gig will be the first public airing for the new songs, reason enough to drag the faithful to the unlikely yet suitably awkward Cricklewood.

The fairy godmother of punk is launching her Arts Manifesto. Who best but Vivienne Westwood to do just that? Although you might expect this launch to be a groovy rock affair in some louche venue, Westwood has chosen nothing less than the Fragonards and Boucher-stuffed Wallace Collection for the occasion. Will she appear as La Pompadour? No. Westwood is using the classic rhetoric style of the dialogue to present her manifesto, bringing characters ranging from Aristotle and Pinocchio to Slave Boy and Alice in Wonderland, read by Georgia May Jagger. All 25 of them will read the manifesto while Westwood reads the part of Active Resistance, arguing that art must be representative. Westwood believes there is no progress in art and conceptual and abstract art is today's Emperor's New Clothes; nothing but a subjective whim. Now you understand the choice of location! But the manifesto goes beyond and aims to be a practice against propaganda and non-stop distraction. Through the search for art we will become artistic freedom fighters. This involves making the choice to become more cultured, thus more human, and to understand the world. Is this all tongue-in-cheek? Go find out!

Tarell Alvin McCraney's electric first play is matched by the sharp production of Bijan Sheibani, his first since taking the helm at ATC, which deservedly extends its already extended run at the Young Vic until 15/12. McCraney takes a Yoruban myth and transforms it into a moving parable in more contemporary Afro-American setting. It's a story of little brother Oshoosi Size, recently out of prison, who is torn between the responsibility demanded by big brother Ogun Size and the seductive charm of an easier life that the enigmatic interloper Elegba proposes. Sheibani's production opens with ritual -- a chalk circle drawing the audience into the round; red dust scattered to mark the events in the brothers' story -- and is driven by a pulsating live score played by Manuel Pinheiro. The formal device of the actors speaking their own stage directions creates a nicely pared-down setting, performed with lithe precision. McCraney's richly theatrical text is deliciously rendered in three excellent performances from Nyasha Hatendi and Obi Abili as big and little brothers Size, and Nathaniel Martello-White as the interloper. The audience's rapturous response to the brothers' mime to Otis Redding, staving off inevitable tragedy, caps this as exceptional live theatre.

NB: runs till 15/12.

Modular's midas complex continues to strengthen as they again defy the better judgement of seasoned Londoners by holding events at Turnmills. Shrugging off the hard-worn prejudices of the snobbish clubberatti probably isn't much of a challenge though when you can wheel out three of the biggest names in electro for a party. Canadian remix kings MSTRKRFT have been cruising since applying their fuzzy-guitar-and-beats formula to the likes of Justice, Chromeo and Bloc Party earlier in the year. Busy P, who would have been quietly standing in the background while Daft Punk tore up Hyde Park in the name of Modular this summer, is back to re-assert his command over the primeval Ed Banger sound. Devlin & Darko and XXXChange -- better known collectively as SpankRock -- have been fusing the aggressive sampling and glitchy breaks popularised by the Parisian mafia with hip-hop, and doing it with a Brooklyn swagger. The only thing missing from the line-up is the slick profanity usually provided by MC Amanda Blank. If you're finding the barrage of repetitive electro and blog house a bit joyless, these three are probably a good place to find out what's really coming next.

Space may have been the final frontier for explorers in the past, but artists working with sound today commonly focus on an idea of the city, public space and the resonances that come from listening to the spaces in between. For this year's annual Sprawl Advent Series there is an early Christmas gift with a festival of free evenings comprising live music riffing on these themes. Generously presenting Australia's ROOM40 head honcho Lawrence English's barely perceptible, transformative electronic compositions in a rare London show, alongside Mark Fell of SND with his tapestry of textural ambience and metallic clanking rhythms, and Italian percussionist Stefano Tedesco, this will be an early treat for any festive listener. A night in which to converse, convert and consider the mirthful spirit of the holiday season.

NB: on 09/12 catch Advent Sprawl No. 2 with Beddoes and For Barry Ray and on 16/12 Advent Sprawl No. 3 with Jodi Cave, Murmer and Simon Whetham.

Look up at the night sky and -- if you can see through the light pollution -- you'll see tiny delicate and twinkling lights in the darkness. However, each one of them on their own is so incomprehensibly large, powerful and ancient compared to us. The music of Murcof is much like this -- incredibly delicate and detailed but with a huge presence. Fitting music of the spheres. Following the sell-out performance of his new album, Cosmos, at the Peter Harrison Planetarium in Greenwich, here is another chance to experience it through the mighty Corsica Studios sound system alongside a film collaboration between Murcof and visual artists xx+xy. Supporting is the excellent Rothko, who forges similarly celestial soundscapes, though with bass guitar and synthesizers as opposed to computers.

NB: keep an eye out on the Murcof website for future planetarium shows throughout Europe and on 30/11 (1pm) catch Rothko play a free live gig at Union Chapel (part of the Daylight Music Festival).

Faultlessly helmed by New Zealander Andrew Dominik, writer and director of Chopper, The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, proffers a quite excellent script (written by the director himself), sublime cinematography by Coen Brothers DP, Roger Deakins, and exceptional performances from all. The only fly in the ointment is Brad Pitt as Jesse James who, though not delivering a bad performance by any means, just doesn't have the acting chops to fully realise this most complex robber/hero/killer/father who, can coldly shoot an untrustworthy former comrade in the back, then calm his horse with the words: "It's okay my sweetheart". Pitt just isn't nasty enough. Luckily, the movie is all Casey Affleck's who, as the sly and scheming Robert Ford, initially idolizes James, lovingly collects the many dime novels that publicize the outlaw's exploits, yet eventually shoots the desperado in the back in his own house while the kids play in the garden. He surely must win an Oscar for his performance. An entirely beguiling film it is, in the words of Pitt -- who also produced the picture -- "more of a psychological drama than Western. It deals with the anatomy of an assassination and it's consequences".

NB: released in London on 30/11.

Currently running in rep with Rhinoceros at the Royal Court, The Arsonists is a shorter, pithier play than Ionesco's absurdist drama -- but it is no less unsettling and morally accusatory as it shines a spotlight on our own collusion in the erosion of contemporary mores. Gottlieb Biedermann is a phoney liberal capitalist (a brilliantly on-edge Will Keen), whose draconian idealism (a dismissive attitude towards his employee's suicide, and his call for capital punishment) is undermined by his acutely PC attitude. His town is in a tailspin following a spate of arson attacks, but when a thoroughly suspicious homeless man prays upon Gottleib's latent class-conscious hysteria (cloaked as it is in a public liberalism that hides private fascism), Gottlieb allows the anarchic vagrant to set himself up in the attic of the Biedermann home, whereupon he is joined by his polemic-spouting partner in crime, who installs barrels and barrels of gasoline. Despite the warnings of the chorus (the fire brigade), Gottleib is ultimately the instrument of his own downfall as he refuses to take definitive action in halting the steps of his own funeral march. A single match is the only thing that's needed to destroy his home... will Gottlieb give one to the terrorists? Very funny and very dark -- one to see.

NB: runs till 15/12.

David Frost is a broadcasting institution, which perhaps accounts for his hard shell: "In the event of a nuclear holocaust, it is quite possible that two things will survive: cockroaches and David Frost's niceness". We might well marvel at this two-handed complement, one delivering that swift punch in the face and the other a clean fast-held handshake. Any one who saw Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon will chuckle at this double whammy critique, where Morgan's Frost morphs from the ridiculous to the sublime, from a small time celebrity schmoozer to an interviewing tour de force, bagging the first sit-down with a broken Richard Nixon after Watergate in 1977. Over night credibility led to a career of buttering up whichever politician, royal, or passing celebrity would perch on his studio couch. In a broadcasting career that has spanned over 45 years he has interviewed US Presidents and British PMs galore. Of late the Frost name has crossed over from the BBC establishment to the more challenging arena of Al Jazeera International, so maybe we'll just have to forgive him -- for now -- for the day-time froth gone bad that is Through The Keyhole.

Picture a biomedical gerontologist and it's unlikely you'll imagine someone like Aubrey de Grey. Usually dressed like a student with a long rusty pony tail and an even longer beard, this 40-something-year-old clearly likes to attract attention. And when people hear his theories on ageing they're well and truly fixed. For de Grey controversially claims that ageing is a disease which can be cured and reversed in our lifetime. He maintains that ageing can be interpreted and treated as a repair and maintenance problem, in the same way we combat ageing in man-made machines like cars or planes. To this end, he has identified seven causes of human ageing and proposes remedies for each of them which he calls Strategies For Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS). He has also co-founded the Methuselah Mouse Prize, which awards large monetary prizes to researchers who extend the lifespan of mice to unprecedented lengths. Unsurprisingly this maverick has numerous adversaries: another prize was set up in 2005 for any molecular biologist, with a record of publication in biogerontology, who could prove that SENS is "so wrong that it is unworthy of learned debate". But the prize has never been won. The fountain of youth's got nothing on this!

Two years back, Michael Winner said his desert island luxury would be a large supply of caviar. The acerbic restaurant reviewer definitely likes his nosh. But eating out several times a week for years took its toll. He admits in his new book, The Fat Pig Diet, that on holiday he always had the biggest breasts on the beach. But thanks to an ex-girlfriend -- now his fiancee ("it's taken me 72 years to get engaged, so don't hold your breath for the wedding") -- Winner was put on "a fierce exercise regime" involving regular half hour walks. But peculiarly that's not the main reason he's gone from 16 to 12 stone in only a couple of years. No, Winner tells us in his book that the magical way to lose weight is (shock, horror) by eating less. So he spent his time consuming mainly goats milk yoghurts, coffee with Baileys and chocolate biscuits (all in moderation of course) and, hey presto, the pounds ran off him "like rats from the titanic". (An obscure tropical disease contracted in Barbados at New Year leading to 19 operations and five-and-a-half months in hospital may have also done the trick.) Thinnie Winnie comes to the LRB to tell all.

Black Mountain are the main band for Black Mountain Army, a collective of musicians, artists and friends in Vancouver. Musically they can broadly be defined as retro-influenced indie rock and roll; their sound immediately recalls the '60s and '70s and shows a clear devotion to Zeppelin and Neil Young. Their only release, 2004's eponymous debut, is a superbly crafted collection of songs. What defines the band is not only the consistency of the song-writing but the distinctive individual strands within the songs, separating them from countless other retro-influenced indie guitar rockers. Psychedelic jams are interspersed with folkier moments, while galloping drums and guitars dissipate into synth and organ interludes -- there is a sense of texture and variety that make this band a little more special than the rest. This show precedes their appearance at the Portishead- curated ATP Nightmare Before Christmas in Minehead, where it is expected they will be performing songs from their upcoming second full-length called In The Future (released January 2008). For those who aren't making it down to the festival, this should be a great opportunity to check them out.

A golden retriever zigzags across a lake above the restaurant in the sketch gallery. In a playful silence, the dog swims around the space and then disappears into the horizon. Random Visitor by Isabelle Inghilleri is a video painting. It draws the eye beyond the splendid, domed interior of the former RIBA headquarters and the surrounding concrete city. Unlike a conventional film, it has no linear narrative, but instead has abstract framing and layered movement. Its lack of definition reflects the aims of Artscape, founded by philosopher and documentary-maker Hilary Lawson. "The project was born from the realisation that art is the only way to picture openness, to open a window to the world outside," says curator Pablo de Orellana. "Our search for understanding provokes closure at every level. Artscape provides the opposite... it avoids anything that is remotely placeable." It is part of a fresh collection of 75 works that does not loop but adjusts to the level of activity of real time. A cluster of oranges by William Raban comes into fruition during the day, an industrial sunset by Tina Keane melts into the sky at dusk and the shadows of a jungle by Sanchita Islam and skyscraper by Alex Bettler fall at night. These beautiful images reward attention.

NB: runs till 14/12.

Albanian artist Anri Sala specializes in the stretching of time. Whether he focuses his attention on wide open spaces (see his photographic depiction of abandoned fairgrounds) or the absurd image of a white horse propped up on a column (Fuera del carrusel), Sala's aesthetic is undoubtedly, and uniquely, uncanny. His photographic work achieves this through composition while his film work makes the most of a disquieting soundtrack that makes even a housing project painted like a circus tent (Dammi i colori) look feel like a haunted house. The camera moves only sparingly and so slowly as to appear stationary, creating a strange painterly quality that points to Sala's early training as a painter. Why paint with oil and acrylic when you can do it with grain and pixels?

NB: runs till 22/12.

That Callum Innes' abstract process-based paintings feel as though they belong in Frith Street's rough-and-ready interior is largely due to the fact both have been rudely, if elegantly, exposed for our viewing pleasure. Like the subjects of a recent violation, bare brickwork and tear-stained canvases are infused with the memory of a dramatic performance. But the stature and architectural bulk of these connected but very different entities keep overtly theatrical readings at bay. Innes' turpentine-streaked works bear the hallmark of his rigorous practice of painterly removal with a stoicism that inspires meditative as opposed to predictive response. The black stalagmite/tite peaks and troughs on raw ground are equally reminiscent of the codified visuals produced by modern technology as a physical, alchemical battle with paint. Despite the obvious technical involvement of the artist in these works, this stripped-down series -- in equally stark surroundings -- offers a beautifully simple sensory experience.

NB: runs till 22/12.

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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