Kenneth Anger is not of this world. Not literally, plausible as that may seem -- more that he is the product of a different time, a different era. An era that ended finally, one could say, with the early '80s start of his 20-year filmmaking hiatus. Occultist, friend of Aleister Crowley and Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey, controversial author of the scandalous Hollywood Babylon, his is truely a world that died with the microchip and the advent of the World Wide Web. So it was somewhat surprising that in the new millennium he choose to pick up his camera -- and even more so that since that time he has been somewhat prolific, with six releases in eight years, covering everything from the Hitler Youth to suicidal surfer Bunker Spreckels. This Halloween he travels to London to share his esoteric thoughts and accompany screenings of his new films and occult classics, including Fireworks and Lucifer Rising. At 81, this is a rare treat to meet one of the 20th centuriy's true originals, a friend of a friend of Satan. You never know who could turn up...

NB: musical treats provided by Jonny Trunk. Also of note in film this week are the Q&A screenings with Terence Davies (31/10, 01/11 and 02/11), an afternoon with Jem Cohen at the Curzon Soho (02/11), the screening of Ken Jacob's Start Spangled To Death at the Chisenhale Gallery (02/11) and the release of Steve McQueen's Hunger (31/10).

Part Halloween gore-fest (if you're precious about prose), part Victorian medical melodrama and part ruthless editing, The Butcher's Shop writing workshop promises to scalpel away verbosity, lance malapropism, anesthetise insipid vocabulary, dissect nonsense and stitch up what remains with the deft precision of a plastic surgeon. At least that's the idea -- assuming that the organizers, the editors of youth magazine BAD IDEA, are as hot shit as they proclaim to be. Still, judging by the youthful exuberance they've displayed at V&A's Late Night, weekend forays to festivals and other such zeitgeisty locales you can bet the BAD IDEA crew will approach this latest venture with gusto. The theatrical setting is also intriguing -- this new monthly night is being held at the Old Operating Theatre behind London Bridge station (a stroke of genius) and sponsorship from Hendrick's Gin means you can get sozzled while short stories by you and others are hauled onto the 19th century operating table, projected onto a screen and mercilessly probed. Think Gunther Von Hagens for the literary elite.

The Halloween weekend in London usually ushers forth a bounty of themed musical delights. Not so this year. Perhaps it's the fault of the oft mentioned credit crunch which has gripped even the humble club promoter. Spending your evening surrounded by people all dressed up as Freddy Krueger or Cat Woman pretending to have a good time has always been a meek experience at best anyway. Putting aside your disappointment at a lack of any concrete trick or treatery, we recommend you drown your sorrows at Plastic People this Thursday (and on Sunday -- for more info on that night click here). The infrequent Innervisions London session returns to the Hoxton venue with a line-up reeking of the sort of smell the house elite emit with label bosses Dixon and Ame at the controls throughout the evening. Karlsruhe duo Ame will forever be prefaced by the words "Rej" and "Tune of 2006", but this is a massive disservice to their talents as producers and DJs -- check their recent Fabric mix for a more playful take on the house sound. Those doubting Dixon's resume only need a cursory glance at Discogs to see the man knows his dance music onions.

With only five made since 1985, films by Terence Davies are rare jewels. Created as part of Liverpool's European City Of Culture year, Of Time And The City is a kind of cinematic memory document -- part autobiography, part documentary; a look at how a place can shape us. Extremely personal, Davies draws parallels of his own early life from his birth in Liverpool until he left the city at 28, with Liverpool's own (and the entire country's) life. The upheavals in post war traditional working class Liverpool are mirrored with Davies' own experiences as he breaks away from conventional attitudes towards religion and sexuality. A combination of new film and luridly-coloured '50s and '60s footage compliment the mainly high-contrast black and white newsreel archive, a fabulous collection of images of dark, damp cobbled neighbourhoods, craggy faces and frighteningly enormous crowds at sporting events, ferry docks and the seaside (and a snippet of screaming Beatles fans, naturally). Davies' own narration is a slightly laconic, slightly regretful mixture of moving reminiscences, snippy sarcastic comments and snatches of poetry, and although reflective and quite moving, the film is also quite funny, sprinkled with Davies' alternatively affectionate and cranky comments.

NB: Of Time And The City is released in London on 31/10. Catch Terence Davies for several special Q&A screenings on 31/10 (6:45pm) at the Curzon Soho, 01/11 (6:30pm) at the Gate Picturehouse, and 02/11 (3:30pm) at the BFI Southbank. Also of note in film this week is a night with Kenneth Anger at Shunt Vaults (30/10), an afternoon with Jem Cohen at the Curzon Soho (02/11), the screening of Ken Jacob's Start Spangled To Death at the Chisenhale Gallery (02/11) and the release of Steve McQueen's Hunger (31/10).

Since 2001, Rene Pollesch has been a mainstay, as both writer and director, at the Volksbuehne in Berlin -- a theatre renowned for promoting the relation between (rather than, as so often, the separation of) theatrical experiment and social critique. While Pollesch's work is invited to theatres across Europe, this will be his first appearance in the UK. Interestingly, this first showing -- a collaboration with another mainstay of the Volksbuehne, the scenographer Bert Neumann and the cinematographer Ute Schall -- will be at the Royal Academy. These two performances of Pollesch's Death Of A Trainee (which premiered at the Volksbuehne last year) will leave behind the material of an ongoing installation at the RA. Expectations of "a play" may well be confounded, as the project explores different mediations of the "live" event -- from text to bodies, from film to objects, as well as, indeed, our expectations of "theatre". At the very moment at which the ICA, with Arts Council support, has closed its live art department, this project is a welcome reminder that performance today can find an audience as much in gallery spaces as in theatres.

NB: Death Of A Trainee is performed on both 31/10 and 01/11 and has been programmed in conjunction with the Royal Academy's Molten States exhibition (a collaboration between three Berlin-based artists Rene Pollesch, Olaf Nicolai and Julian Rosefeldt) which runs from 31/10 till 03/12. Both the performance and the exhibition are part of the RA's GSK Contemporary season which runs till 19/01/09.

Although his comment that 9/11 was the biggest work of art ever created will probably not be forgotten any time soon, Karlheinz Stockhausen's real legacy -- one that impacted not only on classical music, but also popular music and jazz -- is unlikely to fade quickly. Best known as a revolutionary pioneer of electronic music and serialisation, Stockhausen was a composer of great intellect and creativity who is widely considered the leading German avant-garde composer of his generation. A tireless innovator, who experimented with all forms of music, from opera to voice work and chamber music, Stockhausen was also a theorist who sought to alter the vision of 20th century music and its relation to space. The programme includes all of the composers' most well-known work, as well as plenty of rarely-performed works (which, due to the logistics of Stockhausen performances, include most of them!) and four premieres, including the monumental Klang cycle, which was to include one work for each hour of the day (only 21 were finished before Stockhausen's death). Considering he had been for a while Oliver Messiaen's student, the timing of the Southbank Centre's week-long tribute -- coinciding with the latter part of their superb Messiaen festival -- works extremely well.

NB: runs till 09/11. On 08/11 (2pm) catch David Toop when he leads a symposium on serialism. (The Music Of Oliver Messiaen festival runs till 06/03/09.)

One of the great things about this city is that even the most sought after, busiest and most inspiring people can be persuaded to speak here about what they do. What that means, is that every so often -- if we are quick on the draw -- we get little glimpses into the ways and methods of making employed by some of our greatest inspirations, and that we may find inspiration in often unexpected places. Known for his circumspect and diagrammatic narrative techniques that have taken him all over the world, Jem Cohen could be seen as a modern day "man with a movie camera". With a view to change the world, or at least the way we see it, Cohen's films document and reveal the inextricable links between unlikely subjects, always to an impressive and appropriate score. In short, he does what most aspiring filmmakers want to do. So here is a chance to ask him how he does it. The afternoon's programme is linked to the current political climate in the US, and will include screenings not only of Cohen's work, but also the films that inform it.

NB: this event is part of the Curzon's just launched ongoing Cinema Nation series. Also of note in film this week is a night with Kenneth Anger at Shunt Vaults (30/10), the Q&A screenings with Terence Davies (31/10, 01/11 and 02/11), the screening of Ken Jacob's Start Spangled To Death at the Chisenhale Gallery (02/11) and the release of Steve McQueen's Hunger (31/10).

This is a rare chance to see this seminal film in its entirety. Ken Jacobs, one of the most accomplished American experimental film-makers of the 20th century, filmed it between 1957 and 1959 , expanding and editeding it into its present form in 2004. It is a true epic, running to 440 minutes, and is a collage of found footage and staged sequences starring legendary performance artist Jack Smith. It incorporates a vast array of politically charged material, and sets about exploding myths and propaganda. It is not however a simple flag burning critique of American society; it is a multi-layered and impressionistic view of an individual who is part of a society that is in conflict with itself. Formally it is a forerunner of the likes of Mathew Barney and John Bock in the way it mixes sculpture and film, though Jacobs manages this with a fraction of the budget. It is being presented within a retrospective of Jacobs' work, hosted by tank.tv, that also includes a performance and a talk by Jacobs later in the month. What's more, this screening is being billed as a celebration of the last days of the Bush administration: refreshments will be available.

NB: catch Ken Jacobs and Eric La Casa on 29/11 (10:15pm) for a live performance at BFI Imax and then for a talk on 30/11 (12:30pm) at the BFI Southbank (both these events are part of the BFI's Kill Your Timid Notion mini festival which runs on both 29/11 and 30/11). Also of note in film this week is a night with Kenneth Anger at Shunt Vaults (30/10), the Q&A screenings with Terence Davies (31/10, 01/11 and 02/11), an afternoon with Jem Cohen at the Curzon Soho (02/11) and the release of Steve McQueen's Hunger (31/10).

Another artful evening of restrained melodic adventures from the Arctic Circle, bringing together three musicians, each with a subdued take on composition. Sylvain Chauveau, with releases on labels FatCat, Type and O Rosa, is making his London debut. His work coerces minimal sounds from piano and strings and combines them with discrete electronica. It is distinguished by employing silence itself as a musical element -- a John Cage-ian tapestry of incidental details. Meanwhile Peter Broderick, originally from Portland, Oregon, is a multi-instrumentalist singer songwriter whose performances are infused with warmth and deft harmony. He recently joined his heroes Efterklang for a new life in Copenhagen, receiving a glowing mention in NME for his new album Home on Bella Union this month. Starting the night off will be Greg Haines, a pianist and cellist from the south of England, whose influences include Arvo Part, Gavin Bryars, William Basinski, Brian Eno, and Johann Johannsson. His recent album Slumber Tides was described as "music to fall into and let it embrace your heart and soul". Autumnal tunes to watch the candles flicker by.

2008 has been a good year for dubstep, with a healthy amount of stylistic progress and new blood seeping into the scene. Principally, the influence of other genres has contributed to some exciting developments. Producers such as Martyn, 2562 and tonight's guest Ramadanman are doing their bit for the evolution of the sound, incorporating moods and sonics more reminiscent of deep house, Detroit techno and early '90s electronica. Ramadanman, aka David Kennedy, hails from London, but set up the Hessle Audio imprint with friends whilst based in Leeds at university. The label has quickly established support from key players in and beyond the scene. Likewise, he's making a name for himself as a producer (for Soul Jazz Records as well as Hessle) but as a DJ he particularly shines. Whilst he seems uncomfortable being considered a "deep" dubstep DJ (he's happy to play sets more suited to the dancefloor when playing clubs), it's undeniable that his selection displays a sensibility which sets him apart from many contemporaries. Already known for breaking new ground, FWD>> once again leads the way.

From the opening scene, replete with artfully crafted vignettes like crumbs slowly dropping into a napkin, we knew we were in highly capable hands. Poignant, sincere, and exquisitely detailed, director Steve McQueen's thoughtful feature debut Hunger tells the story of Bobby Sands' 66-day hunger strike in 1981 resulting in his death at the infamous Maze prison in Northern Ireland. With occasional, though welcome humour, McQueen's pared-down, understated narrative pays off beautifully given the subject matter, and is without mawkishness or sentimentality. The moment you take sides, you are starkly jolted back into line: there is no partisan slant at all. The significant violence in this film illustrates the uncompromising hatred on both sides that those those who lived through "The Troubles" remember well. Michael Fassbender's performance as Sands remains perfectly pitched, his transformation from an actor into a starving man seemingly faultless. The supporting cast is also to be commended, and Liam Cunningham's portrayal of Father Dominic Moran is remarkable, showing off Enda Walsh and McQueen's restrained dialogue to potent effect. Free of polemic, this illuminating and meticulously assembled work throws a very human light on this wretched time.

NB: Hunger is released in London on 31/10. Also of note in film this week is a night with Kenneth Anger at Shunt Vaults (30/10), the Q&A screenings with Terence Davies (31/10, 01/11 and 02/11), an afternoon with Jem Cohen at the Curzon Soho (02/11) and the screening of Ken Jacob's Start Spangled To Death at the Chisenhale Gallery (02/11).

In the relatively snug surroundings of the RIBA gallery, Anish Kapoor's penchant for big ideas, in physical scale and moreover spiritual ambition, are brought to life through his architectural models. Here, over 40 large-scale pieces are described through the particular language of the architectural model. Entitled Place / No Place, the dichotomies of Kapoor's work are revealed over and over. From his No Place (1989) to Tail Pavilion (2005), his work teeters on the precipice between absence and presence, between form and a gaping abyss that leaves his audience off balance. If you have stared into Kapoor's Ishi's Light (2003) at Tate Modern, or perhaps even experienced the bigger scale Cloud Gate (2004-2006) in Chicago, you will have felt that familiar dizzying sensation that his work invokes. Lest we forget, this is an artist whose work is held in in many of the world's most famous locations and galleries; he is also a Turner Prize winner (1991), CBE and soon to be immortalised with a retrospective at the Royal Academy in 2009. He is prolific, playful and imaginative but in every manifestation of his work there is a darkness that animates his forms. Whether it be metaphysical or transcendental depends on your reading, but it tends to hit you in the gut in a visceral way.

NB: runs till 08/11.

Thomas Hirschhorn kicks off the RA's brand new annual lecture series with a discussion on the inextricable relationship between art and politics. Who better, really, given that the Swiss artist's use of image, text and object to deconstruct the contemporary world as a mass media spectacle is often violent, always provocative? Through collage, sculptural tableaux and lo-fi site-specific installations he makes philosophical and material mincemeat out of our collectively woolly relationship with the word "political". While it's hard not to react to the repellent and referentially chaotic nature of Hirschhorn's practice (incorporating such things as photos of mutilated Iraqi people and an effigy of Nietzsche) his uncompromising assembly affords enough distance between the viewer and the work to make one aware of, rather than an unwitting component within, each architectural situation. To say that Hirschhorn wears his own politics on his sleeve is something of an understatement -- he famously turned his back on his native country until controversial right-wing leader Christoph Blocher was voted out. Expect ungloved handling of this hottest of art potatoes.

Mark Morris is something of a hell-raiser, the kind of man that young mavericks grow up to be (not to be confused with horror writer Mark Morris, author of several Doctor Who novels, who is due to publish a new Hellboy novella later this month...). Morris enraged Belgium by refusing to take Anna Theresa de Keersmaeker, their patron diva of dance, seriously; he is accused of pandering to his devotees with "in jokes" that cause ripples of laughter from audience members who are in the know. He cannot, however, be accused of being bland. A short, stocky man who moves with astounding grace and delicacy, he made instrumental changes to the way people viewed the dancing body. His company is made up of dancers who look like... well, people. Set to Prokofiev's original score, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, his "new classic" is likely to divide critics and audiences alike. Romeo And Juliet -- a tale of feuding families, united by the tragic death of two young lovers? You're probably only half right.

NB: runs till 08/11. On 06/11 catch Mark Morris for a post show talk. This event is part of Dance Umbrella 2008 which runs till 08/11.

Edward Lipski, not to be confused with Donald, comes from that oddball school of sculpture that counts -- broadly -- artists like Tony Cragg, Jonathan Borofsky, Mike Nelson, Phyllida Barlow and Gary Webb amongst its alumnus. They are part assemblage, part found object, part icon, but all sculpture; though not of the Henry Moore variety. These works are anthropomorphic, structural and evocative. They are not abstract nor are they quite representational. Concocted from all kinds of material, some of which plug in and light up, Lipski appears to be drawing on a rich and funny vein of life as we know it. Whereas in the past they were more figurative, his recent pieces use found object like gold lions, Carrara marble, Buddhas stacked on top of each other, to create totemic objects that are at turns eerie and hilarious. You could say that it's all totems and taboo -- though not quite close to Freud's notions of incest -- but these sculptures do literally appear totemic and seem to wanna break taboos.

NB: runs till 15/11.

There is a haunting quality to Dryden Goodwin's urban portraits. The photographs of Londoners, captured from a distance, are manipulated with complex webs of thin scratches, sheer splashes and thick marks. The effect is disquieting, like being able to see someone's worries and fears on their faces as marks that can be read like a poem. This is reinforced by the attitude of the subjects, usually lone commuters unaware that they are being watched, either absorbed in thought, engrossed in a telephone conversation or slumped with fatigue. Goodwyn's unique digital drawing technique creates a form of interference that pushes his work further than documentary. The series of diptychs entitled Caul is probably the most potent illustration of what he can achieve. Side by side in one frame, a wide contextualised shot of a commuter aboard the top deck of a bus is juxtaposed with a close-up of the same person's face adorned with the trademark membrane of red squiggles. The drawn image is merely an enlargement and reframing of the other, yet they appear to be entirely different, the drawing adding a whole narrative that hints at an otherworldly presence or an unsuspected inner life.

NB: runs till 16/11.

Clegg and Guttmann's The Age Of Syncopation offers an experiential engagement with viewing and the possibility of collective cognitive and physical exchange with other visitors to the exhibition. Continuous Drawing/Exquisite Corpse, 2006 is a knowing reference to the Surrealists and a playful comment on gallery audiences. You draw the person next to you on a blackboard, which can then be spun so that you continue someone else's portrait. In The Chain Gang, 2008 four people can be shackled together to walk round a track to the beat of Edwardian Ragtime playing on two old gramophones. Social mores are explored in The Toast (Elementary Forms Of Collective Behavior), 2007 where participants try to obtain a resonant sound by toasting the person next to them, while The Constrained Brahms Quartet, 2008 is now only an assemblage of accoutrements a mute enigmatic trace of a previous performance. The complex ideologies underpinning the artists conceptual and interactive practice evolved out of research into the area where the gallery is sited together, and references the history of syncopation, Ragtime, East London Teddy Boys, the Surrealists and Dadaists, as well as Clegg and Guttmann's previous exhibitions. Ultimately this is an optimistic exhibition, with its promise of exuberant interactive surprises and physical entanglement, which also provides art historical and social engagement.

NB: runs till 16/11.

This is probably one of Bernard Jacobson's finest exhibitions. Consisting simply of five paintings by Robert Motherwell (1915-91) from his Open series, the works are so large that they almost fill the entire space. And that is correct; Motherwell's Opens were intended to be just that -- open. A response to the flat abstraction being created in the '60s, these Opens are abstraction via Matissean doorways -- in fact look at Motherwell's collages and you very much feel the Frenchness within. Motherwell was the most intellectual of the Ab-Ex paint-slingers, equipped with a degree in philosophy, and he even became the editor of various art mags and books. Highly influenced by his knowledge of art history, he was actually the most European of the gang. Of course it was Pollock that took the first step, but Motherwell's elegant splays and pours of paint were more erudite than wild. Seemingly only three lines over a predominately flat plane of colour, like a door or window, Motherwell's Opens evoke possibility, plains, the Mediterranean, and most of all, stripping things to their bare basics.

NB: runs till 22/11. The Robert Motherwell Foundation is seeking help with its Catalogue Raisonne, for more info click here.

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