Andy Warhol's films are really anti-films -- works of art, really. Take the 1964 Empire State Building film, Empire, nothing happens, then more nothing for eight whole hours. Walk-in, walk-out, have a smoke, walk back in again, it's still there: nothing much notable has happened. This is what life's like he says. It's almost Beckett; that is if you can picture an Irishman with a white wig, camp attitude, and a loft full of Factory workers. In fact, Warhol described his early films as a way to pass time. But such boredom expressed as art is not to be confused with the decadent living at Warhol's infamous Factory. To celebrate the launch of The Hayward's Warhol show, three of Warhol's Factory stars are going to talk about their misadventures with the wigged one. Holly Woodlawn was in his most commercially successful film, Trash, directed by Paul Morrissey; while Camp Queen Mary Woronow was in the famous Chelsea Girls; and Bibbe Hansen, daughter of Fluxus artist Al Hansen and mother of Beck, was in Restaurant. You know what they say about the '60s: if you remember it, you weren't there. Now here's our chance to finally live a little vicariously.

NB: Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms runs at The Hayward till 18/01/09. Also of note is the John Cale: Life Along The Borderline - A Tribute To Nico concert on 11/10 (7:30pm).

We have an obsessive need to communicate. We put our personal messages of frivolity and importance into cyberspace and wait for the world to answer back. It's not altogether the most exacting way of being spiritually fed by another human being, but the practice of releasing messages into the ether is not new. The context may have become digitalised and the delivery compressed into tiny units of text jargon, but circa 3,000 BC a smoke signal would have sufficed to pin-point your location in space to say (just as we do today), "This is me, I am here". Back to 2008: the very clever and technically minded people of design and architecture practice Minimaforms (founded by brothers Stephen and Theodore Spyropoulos) have fused ancient and modern technologies to create a thrilling hybrid public (and uncensored) conversation in Trafalgar Square. The performance will be a live feed of the public's text messages projected onto a cloud of smoke. As the smoke shifts, dissipates and reforms, the messages will create an animated evolving text, grafted onto the night's sky.

NB: performances run on 08/10, 09/10 and 10/10 at 7pm.

Superstars in their native Germany, Booka Shade have over here slowly started to make the transition from being simple purveyors of fine quality electronic house music to a bona fide must-see live act. While their label Get Physical Music has released some of the best club music of the past few years -- music perfectly suited to underground dance bunkers in Berlin and London but which might scare off a more commercial crowd -- 2008 has seen things take a step up with the release of their latest album, The Sun & Neon Light (a nice mix of head spinning melodies and driving house beats). Following in the footsteps of acts like Trentemoeller, they've put together a proper live set-up and are heading out of the clubs to conquer the kinds of venues normally associated with flavour-of-the-month rock bands -- such as KOKO, which having played host to countless festivals over the summer should offer up little resistance. With support from label-mates M.A.N.D.Y. and Heidi, expect everyone from the minimal crowd to full-on electro heads to be out in force this Thursday. Now, if only you could get a decent bratwurst in Camden... (PS make sure you check out the M.A.N.D.Y. vs Book Shade remixes of Laurie Anderson's "O Superman".)

The Cinematic Orchestra has skirted around the borders of the mainstream for almost a decade -- usually flirting with critical success and recognition only when their giant soundscapes made it onto soundtracks. But the six-piece's fusion of sampled jazz and trippy electronica has the sort of understated depth for which Ninja Tune has become renowned, and so it's a great treat to see them at a venue as given to expansive sound as the Roundhouse. Expect long, sweeping instrumentation woven with all manner of sounds, both fiercely acoustic and decidedly technological. Their biggest strength is the ability to mix live improvisation and intricate production, something hopefully being at the Roundhouse means it will get the recognition it deserves. Their only major supporter in recent times has been Gilles Peterson, but they deserve to escape the leftfield bracket and start to be regarded as a jazz-orientated cousin of acts like UNKLE -- albeit more high brow. Music this clever shouldn't just belong to the most dedicated jazz heads.

Another week and another great party in the disco republic of Dalston. This time it's one thrown by Electric Minds who along with Late Night Audio have been busily going about their business the past few months releasing a steady stream of much-sought-after 12"s as well as throwing increasingly unmissable parties. This Friday aforementioned labels' Dolan Bergin and Danny Clark will be joined by another pillar of the nu disco community Tiny Sticks, the excellent label run by sometime DFA signings Mock & Toof. Also on the line-up is Italy's Fabrizio Mammarella and Toby Tobias, whose recent Space Shuttle LP on Rekids has been turning up in all the right DJ boxes. Make the trip up Kingsland Road and expect everything from afrofunk to techno, via balearic disco.

NB: due to a licensing peculiarity this week's party is advance tickets only.

True musical innovation is all too rarely accepted these days. Bands seem more concerned about how music reflects upon their image rather than seeking out a sound that might confuse or even scare audiences otherwise comfortably accustomed to banal acts that all sound and dress the same. This may explain why, three critically lauded albums into their career, cult Brooklyn dwellers Gang Gang Dance remain on the periphery of recognition, a band mentioned only within the confines of the hipster inner circle. This may all change with the release of their fourth album, Saint Dymphna, on the revered Warp Records. It characterises the GGD sound perfectly, drawing on a broad range of ideas and influences and awakening something new with every listen. Even the odd choice of collaborating with grime MC Tinchy Stryder pays off brilliantly. Due for release on 20/10, Saint Dymphna is likely to garner heady praise from Pitchfork et al, as well as feature highly on those end-of-year lists everyone with an opinion likes to make. We heartily recommend this gig, organised by thems-in-the-know All Tomorrows Parties.

Born Christa Paffgen, Nico was a breathtaking Teutonic beauty, Vogue model, Fellini movie actress, wife of actor Alain Delon, Velvet Underground chanteuse, solo singer-songwriter and Warhol Superstar. She may have died 20 years ago (in a Mediterranean holiday motorcycle accident, not from the results of 15 years of chronic heroin dependency) but with that kind of CV her perfect, blonde wreathed visage ought to be seen more often adorning t-shirts and students bedroom walls alongside fellow icon/casualties Kurt, Sid, Jim, Jimi and Janis. Perhaps because of the stentorian nature of her voice, her glacial aloofness or the saturnine pall of her often heavily abstracted, harmonium-backed songs, Nico remains something of an acquired taste -- a true cult artist. John Cale, her friend and erstwhile Velvet Underground colleague (producer and collaborator on key Nico albums such as Chelsea Girls, The Marble Index and The End and her tireless champion, even during the leanest, drug-blighted years) hopes to alter those perceptions with this one-off tribute concert. Alongside Cale himself, the Nico oeuvre will be explored by the likes of Bauhaus' Pete Murphy, singer Mark Lanegan, Manic Street Preachers' James Dean Bradfield and Lemon Jelly's Nick Franglen. Not so much The End as a new beginning for the too long neglected Paffgen songbook, perhaps.

NB: this event has been programmed in conjunction with The Hayward's just opened Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms exhibition which runs till 18/01/09. Also of note is the special Warhol Supertsars evening with Holly Woodlawn, Mary Woronov and Bibbe Hansen on 09/10 (7pm).

Famed for concocting his debut album in a portakabin at the bottom of his garden, Bristolian producer Hint has since relocated his studio to a more salubrious location and produced one of this year's better albums Driven From Distraction. Eschewing the pedestrian throwback funk stylings of his Tru Thoughts labelmates, Hint's music has more grounding in the intergalactic RnB of Timbaaland and the rowdy club genres of dubstep and bass heavy house, consequently has fans in the shape of Larry Garnie and Toddla T. Hint descends on Kings Cross venue Big Chill House for the latest monthly Tru Thoughts night with vocalist Laura Vane in tow. Vane has a impressive roll call of collaborations, having previously worked with Gnarls Barkley and The Streets, and her contributions to Driven From Distraction are among the highlights (the Maurice Fulton meets Lauryn Hill sound of "One Woman Army" especially). Both will be performing a live PA with Hint also bringing his discoteque styles. Ranging from hip hop and reggae to the more uptempo spectrum of electronic music, a Hint DJ set can get cripples dancing (excellent examples can be found here) Tru Thoughts whippersnapper Roo joins Hint behind the decks for the evening.

Many companies perform dance away from traditional stage spaces in an attempt to make contemporary work more accessible. For those without a vested interest in dance, or lacking the funds for theatre seats, several festivals produce free outdoor events -- in the hope of catching the eyes and the imaginations of passers by. Several thousand people accidentally stumbled upon Transports Exceptionnels in Jubilee Gardens last year for the Dance Umbrella Festival. Many companies attempt to integrate dance and modern technology but few have successfully married man and machine as gracefully and tenderly as Compagnie Beau Geste. The piece was so popular it has been re-programmed for the 2008 festival with an extended run of 12 outdoor performances. This extraordinary work partners a mature male dancer with a mechanical digger. The brute of a machine nurtures subtle emotions in the performer -- a sequence of attraction, reliance, rejection and forgiveness. Just remember, this particular machine is operated by a highly trained dance practitioner: do not demonstrate your newfound enthusiasm for contemporary dance by entering a building site and hugging the first JCB you see.

NB: Transports Exceptionnels will be performed on 11/10 and 12/10 (Parsons Green, Fulham, SW6), 13/10 (Haven Green, Ealing, W5), 17/10 (Victoria Park, Tower Hamlets, E9), 18/10 (London Fields, Hackney, E8) and 19/10 (Central Park, East Ham, E6). This event is part of Dance Umbrella 2008 which runs till 08/11.

Based on Roberto Saviano's best-selling "fiction" about the Neapolitan mafia, this is an utterly compelling view of life in the suburbs of Italy's former first city. Shot in a matter-of-fact style by much feted Italian director and screenwriter Matteo Garrone, this is no Scorsese or De Palma-like glamorisation of organised crime. The film follows several character storylines, each showing different levels of involvement in the Camorra's activities. For some it seems attractive, the rational next step for a growing boy to earn money and respect, as with teenager Toto, who in one powerful but understated scene kisses goodbye to his childhood best friend as they choose to "fight" for different sides in the inter-faction turf war. Some, like the self-destructive Scarface wannabes Marco and Ciro, skirt the fringes, acting on impulse without thought for consequence. And then there are those who have no choice, like Maria who loses the financial support of one side as her son chooses the other. These are the real tragedies, innocents drawn in and trapped by an evil thread woven into to the very fabric of their society. With a crushing sense of inevitability, each of its characters' stories gradually unravels with no hope of deliverance or redemption, just more violence, bloodshed and betrayal. Bleak, but arresting and undeniably important.

NB: Gomorrah is released in London on 10/10. Also of note is the London Film Festival which runs from 15/10 till 30/10.

This year's recipient of the Jencks Award, Wolf D Prix from Coop Himmelb(l)au gives a talk about his commitment to building surprising architecture through fresh use of materials. The award recognises the major contribution that Prix has made to both architectural theory and practice, since founding the "blue-sky" thinking practice in 1968 with Michael Holzer and Helmut Swiczinsky. Both a radical thinker and an urban theorist, he has played a vital role in developing and documenting the firm's deconstructivist approach to forward-thinking structures. From their exhibition of a visionary prototype for future living at documenta 5 (1972) to their glazed "Cloud" of future knowledge at the Musee des Confluences (a hybridisation of a museum of science and ethics and an urban leisure space, which will revitalise a brownfield site at the meeting of rivers in Lyons when it opens next year) the practice has consistently demonstrated a virtuous approach to building. In the talk, Prix will trace the evolution of such visionary concepts, from the drawing board to their realisation. It will be chaired by architectural historian and designer Charles Jencks.

NB: also of note at RIBA is the Place/No Place: Anish Kapoor In Architecture exhibition which runs from 15/10 till 08/11. On 04/11 (6:30pm) catch Kapoor in conversation.

Its a feast of politics and political history at this year's festival, with plenty of episodes from the recent past revisited, and many beady eyes cast over former leaders. Generally steering clear of the epic war themes of the last few years, the strongest films deal in political and ideological conflicts, both contemporary and late 20th century, with a particular focus on the individuals involved.

The festival opens with Frost/Nixon, which recreates the landmark 1977 television interview when David Frost out-maneuvered the slippery, Watergate-disgraced former US president Richard Nixon. Retaining the original cast from the theatre version, Frost/Nixon has Frank Langella as the conniving Nixon and Michael Sheen (taking a break from his numerous portrayals of Tony Blair) as the unexpectedly wily Frost. The film is a fascinating episode of American history and a reminder of the power of the media over politicians.

Cannes 2008 Jury winner Il Divo, from The Consequences Of Love's Paolo Sorrentino, presents a critical biography of the most famous, successful -- and more importantly -- notorious 20th century Italian politician, the seven-times Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. Complex, inventive, fast-moving and with an unexpected quirky soundtrack, the film hits you like a smack in the face, digging through post-war Italian political strategy and uncovering a stack of corpses, a lot of shenanigans and a staggeringly indestructible, Teflon-coated leader.

From one extreme to another, documentary Citizen Havel (Obcan Havel) profiles the long and varied career of the last President of the old Czechoslovakia and the first President of the new Czech Republic. Vaclav Havel -- playwrite, poet, former outlawed dissident and leader of the Velvet Revolution in 1989 -- was filmed for over a decade, with the filmmaker (who died before completing the film) given remarkably free access to his subject. A witty and complex look at a charismatic leader.

Away from the politicians, but continuing with politics, this time closer to home, is former Turner Prize artist Steve McQueen's 2008 Cannes Camera d'Or winning debut feature Hunger, a portrait of the 1981 Maze prison IRA hunger strike and the last days of IRA man Bobby Sands. Unflinching in its portrayal of the standoff between the strikers and the prison guards, particularly the "dirty protest" and Sands' slow, self-induced death, the film is slowly paced, sparing in its dialogue and highly visual.

On a more general note, other highlights of this year's festival include a (guaranteed to be wildly oversubscribed) gala screening of the latest James Bond series Quantum Of Solace; Woody Allen's most recent Spanish outing with Scarlett Johansson, Vicky Christina Barcelona; French director Laurent Cantet's brilliant, highly recommended 2008 Cannes Palme d'Or winner The Class (Entre les murs); Takeshi Kitano's quirky Achilles And The Tortoise; the humorous and fascinating documentary of cult writer Gonzo: The Life And Work of Dr Hunter S Thompson (the latest from the director of Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room) and the closing gala screening (and European premiere) of Danny Boyle's Toronto Film Festival winner Slumdog Millionaire, the Mumbai-shot tale of a young slum-dweller who finds himself in the final round of the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

And finally, as a postscript, a final helping of revolutionaries -- this time Japanese. In United Red Army veteran Japanese director Koji Wakamatsu -- himself something of a revolutionary figure -- reconstructs the notorious 1972 episode of Japanese political history, when a 10-day armed siege at a remote ski lodge outside of Tokyo ended in the massacre of the last remnants of the Japanese postwar radical left-wing movement.

NB: the London Film Festival runs from 15/10 till 30/10.

Neal Stephenson is in London to promote his new novel. Interestingly Stephenson's books are starting to pop up in the main fiction A to Z shelves as well as well as their science fiction location. His writing is as you might expect, given that he graduated from high school at the height of punk and was raised within a large family of engineers and scientists. His themes are enormous and far-reaching, the elaborate plots lines centered around future technologies and their influence upon sociological structures. Speculative but acutely plausible -- in the same manner that JG Ballard's ideas have now become banal realities of modern life. A comparison with the sadly deceased David Foster Wallace also may be fair. Both warm up with enjoyably punchy dialogue shot through with pop culture references, and perhaps humanise subject matter many other writers serve up cold. Stephenson reads from his new book Anathem which centres on a secular society comprised of scientists and mathematicians. For 3,400 years they have lived a peaceful monk-like existence away from the outside world of hyper capitalism, climate change, world wars, enormo malls, super casinos and crude boom / bust financial cycles. One day the denizens are summoned by the outside to provide some solutions. Hmm.

NB: this event is free but you need to email events@foyles.co.uk to secure a spot. Also of note at Foyles is Hans Ulrich Obrist's talk on 21/10 (6:30pm).

Continuing its practice of playfully confounding the expectations that we have of a gallery space, Seventeen's current exhibition sees Susan Collis transforming the main space into a workhouse. Under the watchful gaze of a portrait of gallerist Dave Hoyland, a group of female workers toil away constructing absurdly intricate and delicate paper replicas of traditional laundry bags, using biro and pencil. Seventeen has a permanent installation by Collis on the gallery floor: what appears to be paint dripped across the gallery is, in fact, splashes rendered from mother of pearl. Here Collis' interest in training our eyes on the beauty to be found in hidden labour works in reverse: the bags themselves now seem precious when viewed in relation to the group of women making them, rather than as meaningless objects in and of themselves. In Seventeen's underground gallery, don't miss More Quoted Than Seen a selection of wonderful '70s documentaries from Scottish filmmaker John Samson, who carefully and sensitively observes subjects including rubber fetishists and tattoo artists. Samson's film about young darts star Eric Bristow and the trappings of his fame is particularly excellent -- they certainly don't make 'em like this any more.

NB: runs till 18/10.

Created in 1994, with the support of the Arts Council, the Institute Of International Visual Arts (aka inIVA) has a remit to reach a more diverse audience through an internationalist program. Hew Locke's project more than fits this bill, in fact it enhances it. Born in Guyana, and partly raised there, he has reached public consciousness with his Arcimboldoesque heads of the Queen -- The House Of Windsor series. Made from toys and plastic objects, these stunning, larger-than-life relief sculptures are both humorous and creepy. His new installation, The Kingdom Of The Blind, consists of a frieze of 13 giant warriors in different poses with their victims or slaves. As in his previous work, these reliefs are constructed from an accumulation of plastic parts; often brown doll heads and arms form the basic structure to these armed figures. Like a bling-bling Versace-designed Alien Vs Predator, they immediately recall any number of African dictators. Also as in a dictatorship, the rule of one is built upon the lives of the many, like the multitude of little dolls composing each warrior-like sculpture.

NB: runs till 20/10. On 11/10 (2pm) catch a panel discussion with writers and critics Sacha Craddock, Maxa Zoller and Kobena Mercer.

Stretches of saturated photographic paper, leached of colour by the sun, with flashes of brilliant blue, marine green and greyed edges, these works straddle the abyss of a non-figurative realm. They are the product of artistic partnership Broomberg and Chanarin who in June this year travelled to the front line in Helmand province, Afghanistan, and experienced a particularly deadly week. Armed with 50 metres of photographic paper wrapped up in a cardboard box action photographs were created by exposing the paper to the sun at 20 second intervals. It is war reportage that sets out to challenge the viewer. Their non-figurative medium forces a disjuncture between the context and content, prising open spaces, previously swallowed up by the aesthetics of war photography. Unsurprisingly it is hard work trying to plug the gap and they could lose their audience in the void. Alongside these works a film depicts the journey of their photographic box from armoured tank, to army camp to soldier's shoulder. The film brings a surreal context to the enterprise as the innocuous object performs a would-be clowning act in this military context, revealing the absurd reality of life on the front line.

NB: runs till 26/10.

This is a welcome return to London for an artist who has had a significant effect on our understanding of post-minimal sculpture. This exhibition provides a compendium of Giuseppe Penone's material strategies and sense of metaphor, varying from a bronze cast of the bark of a 200-year-old Cedar tree part-covered in leather, to a diptych of marble and Acacia thorns attached to silk over canvas. Central in the installation is a wooden beam with the negative of the sapling from which the tree grew hollowed out of its centre and part-filled with scented tree resin. This sculpture recalls his contribution to Gravity And Grace, the seminal 1993 Hayward exhibition curated by Jon Thompson, where Penone installed similar large beams with inner saplings revealed by paring away. Elsewhere in this show, the veins in marble are revealed by a similar process. In a reversal of the method of taking art outside the gallery used by British artists concerned with landscape (such as Richard Long), Penone releases notions of the natural from formally inert materials within the gallery context. The strongest legacy of Penone's version of Arte Povera, clearly re-stated in this exhibition, is the direct way in which he makes those materials visually poetic.

NB: runs till 30/10.

When photographs of the US President-elect's son dressed for a party as Mohammed are posted on the Internet on election night, the campaign team sharply shift gear into damage control. But there's a coherent political motive behind 20-year-old Ivy Leaguer John Jr's costume, and he insists upon maintaining his independent, autonomous ground, as well as his privacy, and refuses to issue a public apology. As aides, friends and members of his family file in to his hotel room one by one (while America continues to count votes), each try a different tack to persuade him to see the broader impact of his actions. The drama is fearsomely electric -- buzzing with both international magnitude and private intensity, the pressure concentrated by the claustrophobia of the action's containment within four impersonal hotel room walls. Christopher Shinn's play has a thrashing vitality, ratcheted up several notches by outstanding performances -- not least of all by Eddie Redmayne as the brilliantly bright but emotionally skittish John Jr. Every second of the 75-minute performance is eloquently overwhelming -- you'll leave reeling, but invigoratingly shaken up.

NB: runs till 01/11.

After 16 years Richard Serra is back in London with a double-exhibition-whammy at both Gagosian spaces (Britannia Street and Davies Street). Britannia Street is showing three new industrial steel sculptures that stand like dark monuments against the pristine white walls (walls that were reportedly knocked down and rebuilt to accommodate the works). Open Ended resembles the hull of a ship with a pathway running through it that swallows you up as you walk along it. Fernando Pessoa, named after the Portuguese poet (although Serra says you shouldn't read anything into this title), is a massive rectangular slab that looms above you like an impenetrable black wall that could topple over and crush you if it wanted, and TTI London consists of two enormous sandblasted tourses that welcome you into their fold as you walk around them. All three seem too big for the spaces in which they stand, questioning the limits of the gallery physically and ideologically. The paradox of Serra is that he makes monuments and breaks them: an iconoclast turned patriarch of 20th century sculpture. Davies Street is showing a complimentary exhibition of new works on paper. An altogether monumental exhibition worthy of this giant of modern art.

NB: runs till 20/12 (Britannia Street) and 22/11 (Davies Street).

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