The truly rich have an immense potential for being genuinely strange. Perhaps, as one of the characters in Savage Grace suggests, it is because having enough money allows you not to have to live with the consequences of your actions. Based on the life of Barbara Daly, an aspiring starlet who married Brooks Baekeland, heir to the bakelite plastic fortune, this stylized exploration of dysfunction journeys from the peculiar to the grotesque. Focusing on Tony, the only child of this permanently strained union, the somewhat patchy narrative follows the growing rift between husband and wife as it escalates into a close and stifling bond between mother and son, ultimately leading to tragedy. Stephen Dillane delivers a cold yet insecure Brooks, well counterbalanced by Julianne Moore's own brand of neurosis and desperation. Eddie Redmayne as a disaffected brooding Tony doesn't quite manage to convey how damaging a childhood spent trapped between extreme neediness and neglect can be. Director Tom Kalin's predilection for the dark underbelly of sex and love doesn't quite come across as successfully here as it did in Swoon, perhaps for lack of character development inevitable with a narrative that spans more than 26 years over a few continents. Nevertheless Kalin deserves praise for tackling one of society's most taboo subjects.

NB: Savage Grace is released in London on 11/07. Also of note are the special Q&A screenings of Puffball with Nicolas Roeg, Fay Weldon and Dan Weldon on 14/07 (6:15pm) at the Screen On The Hill and the two screenings of Car Bomb with Robert Baer and Kevin Toolis on 16/07 (6:45pm) at the ICA and again on 17/07 (7:30pm) at the Frontline club.

With the era of recorded sound as material object, whether cylinder, disc, wire, magnetic tape or CD, having been overtaken by the rise of the digital file, Horatio Oratorio arrives to describe the transformation of sound into object and its return into the ether. This ambitious work of audio-visual explorations through the early history of recorded sound is by The Recording Angel Ensemble -- who earlier this year provided a magnificent live soundtrack to the film The Saragossa Manuscript -- and starts with two live performances in the intriguing, cavernous, Shunt Vaults space. Fronted by classical violinist Aleksander Kolkowski, his collaborators are Federico Reuben on live electronics and Sebastian Lexer on sound design, the project employing the first recorded utterances -- by Charles Tainter -- transcribed onto metal and wax and reproduced by styli, diaphragms and horns, as its libretto. Recording Angel Ensemble's sound installation -- which also runs in the Shunt Vaults -- features the machines and suspended horns that run autonomously throughout the week. Friday's event closes with a party and 78rpm DJing session.

NB: the Horatio Oratorio concert is performed on both 10/07 and 11/07. The sound installation is on view at Shunt Vaults till 19/07.

The work of Richard Prince continues to polarise critical opinion. His various means of appropriating Americana (re-presenting gender stereotypical material as promoted by the media: from his photographs of Marlborough cowboy ads to the cars customised with porno-girl paintjobs) are difficult to pin down post-pop. One only needs to flick through reviews of his recent Guggenheim retrospective and his current show at the Serpentine to realise that few are sure of where the artist sits on the issues his works raise and their importance to art historical and anthropological discourse. For some he appears salient commentator on the American dream, for others, a misogynist magpie. With the Bush administration in freefall, now couldn't be a better time to question such things, but the issue of the day at this Serpentine event may well be the artist as collector, for the exhibition features many items from Prince's personal library of rare film manuscripts, literary editions and letters. The panel, including Guggenheim curator Nancy Spector, Collier Schorr (artist and former assistant to Prince) and Artforum's Gilda Williams, is perhaps not quite the critically opposed crew secretly hoped for, but any chance to learn more about this agitator of the photo appropriation and PC debates is not to be missed.

NB: the Richard Prince Serpentine exhibition runs till 07/09.

Choreographer Katie Green has described this collaboration as one of her most challenging projects to date. In a series of "lively, playful and unexpected performances", dancers from The Place will find immediate and unrepeatable ways of articulating movement, manipulating complex structures designed by Grimshaw, the firm founded by the RA's President Sir Nicholas Grimshaw. The immediacy of the relationships created between movement, space, performance and architecture in these short works make for an exciting prospect. Committed to creating challenging, accessible live dance work in a broad variety of settings, this is an ideal project for green bean dance. It is also a huge risk. The dancers are very recent graduates, the urban landscape is open to the (often unpredictable) elements, the audience turnout unknown. In conventional, theatrical settings a choreographer can control or guide the flow of the performance; on the streets of London that element of control is removed. Green is thrilled, however, to be able to "take contemporary dance outside and into unusual locations, where people who may never have seen anything like this before can experience live dance in close proximity". You're in for an unpredictable night.

NB: on 17/07 (6pm) at the Grimshaw offices catch a one-hour workshop on integrating architecture and dance. These events are all part of the Embodied Energy mini festival that runs from 11/07 till 20/11. This in turn is part of the much bigger London Festival Of Architecture which runs till 20/07.

Hot off his success in Manhattan, Flash fave Mike Nelson has lovingly recreated his 1999 To The Memory Of HP Lovecraft for the Hayward's 40th anniversary show, Psycho Buildings. First created for the Collective Gallery in Edinburgh, Nelson's piece, together with Gelitin's boating pond, is one of the exhibition's stand-out pieces, but the fact that Nelson has only given one other public talk already makes this evening a must-see. Now throw in all-round social explorer and historian-turned-artist Jeremy Deller, add South African performance-graffitist, Robin Rhode to the mix, and the evening should entail Boy Scout spirits over-run with the imaginative channeling of ghosts and skateboarder-style outrage. Charged with speaking about "interacting with the public, activism, and artistic practice addressing communities, constituencies and counter-publics", expect the evening to be a spirited and argumentative affair, full of intelligent meanders and sarcastic asides.

NB: If you like the sound of this, then on 22/07 (7pm) catch Rachel Whiteread in conversation with writer/filmmaker Iain Sinclair. Psycho Buildings runs till 25/08.

There is something in the fleeting beauty of the British summer that makes commissioning a temporary lido in the heart of urban London a very sensible idea. The Southwark Lido, a light-weight temporal bathing space, commissioned by The Architectural Foundation as part of the London Festival of Architecture, is the place for a splash and a natter this week. Designed by French architecture collective EXYZT (creators of Metavilla, the French Pavilion for the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennial) the lido will be erected for a mere fours days. International and loosely networked, EXYZT consists of architects, designers, filmmakers and DJs all of whom will live on-site during the construction and operation of the lido; it's all part of a strategy for community renewal on the South Bank. Temporarily taking over the normally empty space (scheduled for mixed development in the future), the public will be invited to experience the architectural design while enjoying the water deck, paddling pool, sauna, beach hut accommodation and bar assisted by Bistrotheque. Get stuck in.

NB: Southwark Lido is open on 09/07 from 7 - 9pm, 10/07 to 12/07 from 10am - 9pm and 13/07 from 10am - 7pm. The London Festival of Architecture runs till 20/07.

Aggie Deyn's inevitable foray into rotten wet blanket indie territory, and the media conspiracy to foist The Ting Tings on us (it has to be a conspiracy right?), are just two musical sins among a multitude that highlight the mediocrity of mainstream music right now. But step away from what the Sunday supplements are telling you, put down that Pigeon Detectives album, don't buy tickets to see Duffy at some huge arena, but rather look beneath the surface at what's bubbling under and music looks very exciting. Potty mouthed MC Miss Odd Kidd is tipped to break through like fellow London acts Goldielocks and the Cock N Bull Kidd before her, with even finger-not-even-close-to-the-pulse Mixmag recently marking her as one to watch. Having inherited both a penchant for synth-heavy electro and a fuck-you attitude from electroclash icon Peaches, Odd Kidd now has the luck to perform on the same club line-up as our favourite X-rated songstress. It makes for an interesting prospect, though it's a shame AITBF could only coax a DJ set out of Peaches. Adding to the female fun are the always entertaining Girlcore crew bringing the dancefloor sweat with their winning combination of Miami bass, classic Phil Collins and electro.

When Body&SOUL was founded in New York in 1996, its creators sought to fill a musical and spiritual void in the city's club scene, harking back to a time when people of all backgrounds would come together to celebrate music. Their efforts to tap back into something pure and powerful were very successful, and Body&SOUL became a righteous clubbing institution, whose reputation spread worldwide. Resident DJs, Francois Kevorkian, Danny Krivit and Joe Claussell already had impeccable pedigrees at the time of the club's formation, but it represented the first time that all three had played together. The music policy is wilfully varied, incorporating different rhythms and tempos, but underpinned with a deep and soulful groove. This is the second year that London-based promoters Need2Soul have brought the Body&SOUL experience to London, but this time the venue is Brixton Academy rather than last year's Canvas party. More than just an international branding exercise, the night will aim to encapsulate the Body&SOUL ethic and presentation, using the original NY lighting people, dancers and club designers, as well as the three residents playing back to back for a whopping nine hours.

No, it's not a typo, San Franciscan quartet Wooden Shjips, like all the best far-out purveyors of drug-induced experimental psychedelia (The Byrds, The Beatles...) like to spell things out in their own, unique way. Already revered by the likes of Rolling Stone uber critic David Fricke and psyche expert Byron Coley, Wooden Shjips' no-holds-barred distortion mantras brook no argument, blowing away the cobwebs of indiedom with the hypnotic velocity of their searing guitars, overdriven organs and heavily grooved drums. Coming on like a shaggy-haired mongrel, equal parts Sunn O))), My Bloody Valentine, The Velvet Underground and forgotten '80s drone-meisters Loop, they ultimately offer a unique, often extraordinarily loud and always deeply narcotic take on trance-rock's first principles. Their self-titled debut album was released late last year to general hosannas and great things are predicted for them, not least in the live arena where they extemporize on the songs, elongating them into epic mirages of sound. Leave your preconceptions about psychedelia at home, then, but don't forget the ear plugs.

Puffball, the first Nicolas Roeg film in over a decade, should be a cause for celebration among cinefiles. With a career that began in the early '60s and with involvement in such brilliant films as Don't Look Now, The Man Who Fell to Earth and Fahrenheit 451 -- what's not to like? Well... rumoured not to be his best film, Puffball arrives with what has become an almost traditional critical mauling. Performance -- which he co-directed in 1970 -- horrified Warner Bros who wanted to destroy all copies of the film. It's now considered a classic British film. When Bad Timing was released in 1980, it was described by its UK distributor as "a sick film for sick people". It went on to win various awards. Roeg, it seems, is best appraised from a slight distance. Sex, musicians as actors (Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Art Garfunkel) and adaptations from books (particularly sci-fi) have characterised Roeg's work. Puffball, adapted from the Fay Weldon novel, combines literature and sex, and re-unites Roeg with his Don't Look Now star Donald Sutherland. The event offers a rare chance to hear Roeg speak, with the added bonus of Weldon -- herself no stranger to controversy and criticism.

NB: Puffball is released in London on 18/07. Also of note are the special Q&A screenings of Savage Grace with Tom Kalin and Eddie Redmayne on 10/07 (6:30pm) at the Curzon Soho and the two screenings of Car Bomb with Robert Baer and Kevin Toolis on 16/07 (6:45pm) at the ICA and again on 17/07 (7:30pm) at the Frontline club.

Sydney resident Oren Ambarchi treats his guitar work with an otherworldly alchemy. Straddling music worlds of tonal micro-glitch, black metal drone and outright pop, his captivating minimalism is a sun-drenched treat. Ambarchi's tonal guitar work is filtered through various effects pedals to recreate Mego-like (but more listener-friendly) improvised explorations, akin to many of the best laptop artists (and his collaborators) Christian Fennesz, Tim Hecker and Pimmon. His joint work includes live sets and recordings with Martin Ng, Sunn 0)))'s Stephen O'Malley, Otomo Yoshihide, Keiji Haino, John Zorn, Keith Rowe, Phill Niblock, Gunter Muller, Evan Parker, Toshimaru Nakamura, Dave Grohl, and Damo Suzuki. Ambarchi is also a band member of the unfocussed post-pop group Sun, as well as Burial Chamber Trio, and Gravetemple. Labels releasing his material are Touch, Southern Lord, room40 and Staubgold; notable solo albums include Suspension, Triste, and Grapes From The Estate. How's that for a CV?

NB: support comes from Helm, whose main-man Luke Younger provides sonic billows and industrial-esque surges.

What is the colour of love? Torn, written by young actor/playwright Femi Oguns and directed by Raz Shaw, repeatedly asks that question but provides an answer to a different interrogation: what is the colour of discrimination? Indeed, as the lives of British, Eastern European, African and Caribbean characters interweave around the nascent love story of David -- an ambitious Nigerian man played by Oguns -- and Natasha, an overprotected Caribbean girl, it becomes clear that prejudice is colour blind. Indeed, their fragile infatuation comes under the duress of their respective families' racial prejudices, casting them as star-crossed lovers reminiscent of the archetypal Romeo And Juliet. Aiming to question the concept of community as a social bond that ought to be free of prejudice, Torn oscillates with variable success between the eye-opening social criticism and the naive love story. The efficient use of a spare set and some strong performances by Brad Damon as Malcolm, the expansive patriarch with a secret and Kelle Bryan as his strong-willed daughter Natasha, more than compensate for the occasional grey areas in the writing, making for an altogether entertaining play about serious issues.

NB: runs till 02/08.

Stuart Croft's piece looks Hollywood, but good Hollywood: studied, disciplined Hollywood. He must know a thing or two about the 180 degree line, about film stock, camera work, and casting. There is an enjoyment gained from watching the fluent deployment of filmic language. We know this as no one really watches an entire film on YouTube but countless numbers seem compelled to upload individual scenes taken out of context, because, presumably, the scene has it's own intrinsic and inalienable quality. Giving too much away would be unfair. But, when the penny drops (and it will for everyone watching it), you'll be thinking: "what just happened?" Then, after a moment, another question will arise: is it good, or just clever? Clever art can be esoteric, telling half-truths that insult your intelligence, surely satisfying if you know the detail, but awful if it is keeping secrets. Good art like this can be a leveler, open, readable, enjoyable. Drive In, short as it is, is the mastery of a complex language producing something powerfully simple.

NB: runs till 20/07. Also of note, around the corner at Nettie Horn, you will be rewarded for your bravery (and choice of appropriate footwear) with a float down your own private canal, it won't sink, trust us (runs till 10/08).

There is a definite preoccupation in the contemporary art world with anthropological subject matter and its value as aesthetic information. This is by no means a new fascination, as we have seen in recent years the upheaval, collection and exhibition of the anthropological exploits of the Surrealists, the Dadaists, and the Victorian bourgeois. There is a gluttony for cultural otherness that is becoming more acute as the world becomes smaller and foreignness itself becomes a foreign concept. Marine Hugonnier comes from an anthropology background, so it's no surprise to find this persistent thread in her work. However, this does not liberate the work from the intrinsically problematic relationship between the artist and subject. Not one to shy away from a difficult question, Hugonnier nods to filmmaker Jean Rouch (who famously aspired to dissolve the distinction between camera and subject) in her film work The Secretary Of The Invisible, but the problem of the scrutinized "other" is far from resolved in Hugonnier's work. A collection of works in various media, the exhibition is a measured investigation into the nature of the unknowable: an empirical scrutiny of time, culture and mysticism that generates an interesting portrait of the artist and her motivations, but stops short of answering her questions.

NB: runs till 31/07.

Although they weren't the scene's most lucrative offering, Mudhoney were firmly at the forefront of what came to be known as grunge at the start of the '90s, paving the way for household names to come. The Seattle-based four-piece began life on the city's Sub Pop record label and were somewhat of a flagship act for some time, particularly known for their searing live shows. Their dirty, fuzzed-out sound slurred punk into traditional rock'n'roll, and was arguably the inspiration for the grunge tag in the first place. Disdain for the commercial attention that the "scene" was attracting meant that the gravy boat passed them by and, despite a busy touring schedule, things slowed down for the band. Recently, though, interest has been renewed, no doubt bolstered by the ATP stamp of approval (the band performed their debut long player Superfuzz Bigmuff for the Don't Look Back season in 2005). This tour is in support of a new album (The Lucky Ones, released in May on Sub Pop) on which the band returns to the raw sound that made them so popular in the first place. It should bring the best from them.

If you want to feel small and all alone in the world go see Mona Hatoum's scary survey show at the impeccable Parasol unit. Beirut-born Hatoum has been based in London since '75. Present Tense consists of work from the last 10 years including sculpture, installations and works on paper. Gone are the visceral body films of the '80s, their blood red has been through the wash 100 times and come out ghostly, but just as potent. Everywhere phalanxes of tiny grey soldiers disturb the peace. There's a child's bedroom with an enchanting diorama but those aren't stars on the wall, they're explosions and those tiny soldiers are creeping around underneath. The subject matter is global, the world itself figures time and again, as a burn in a cotton sheet, as an empty iron cage or as a worn patch on a dull Persian rug. Trek upstairs for her Mobile Home II, worth coming for on its own, a string of drifting household ephemera suspended between crowd barriers. Don't bother trying to understand how it works, just succumb to the illusion. It all comes from a deeply troubled world-view but the lightness of touch and occasional joke means it won't totally spoil your afternoon.

NB: runs till 08/08.

Don't expect anything less than a cool, collected show from John Armleder. Difficult to approach, he's been around since the '60s, founding the art publishing and performance entity Groupe Ecart at the ripe old age of 21. His will to distance himself from labels and genres gives him the persona of a chameleon-like silent achiever, capable of working in the gallery and the handbag business simultaneously. Notorious for not sticking to one medium, or style, or ideology, or indeed chronological order, Armleder's latest reinvention is an exploration of just one side of his work: painting. That gets complicated -- for Armleder "there's no painting that isn't somewhat bad." Indeed, there is much that is "bad" within this show: glittery drip paintings, for example made of colours recently invented (and for good reason). But, offset with horridly kitsch wallpaper, these rather offensive paintings in fact constitute the parts of an installation. Just try not make eye contact with them; look straight from the front door to the back wall and walk through as though ignoring an unsavoury. It just makes sense that way.

NB: runs till 29/08.

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