The latest artist to rise out of the sweaty fog of the LA noise/punk scene -- which brought us No Age and The Mae Shi -- is Wavves aka Nathan Williams. Quite prolific in his output, Wavves warmly received and self-titled debut last year has been swiftly followed with a forthcoming sophomore effort called Wavvves (note the crafty additional "v") where he trades in distorted lo-fi sound with fuzzy vocals which are a breath of fresh air in these times of overproduced pop pap. Perhaps the perfect venue for such noise, Dalston basement Bardens hosts Wavves along with another hotly tipped Atlantic act Crystal Stilts. Coming from Brooklyn (naturally) Crystal Stilts debut album, Alight Of Night has just dropped on London boutique label Angular Recordings and is the sort of moody back to basics garage pop that delights so many. Completing the line-up for Upset The Rhythm are Pens, whose thrashy amatuerish pop and good looks are responsible for a flurry of controversy amongst the keyboard heroes that frequent Drowned In Sound's discussion boards, which means they must be doing something right.

In this new film, based on research done at the enormous Stanley Kubrick Archive, Jane and Louise Wilson have picked out a gentle story of a tragically hopeful young actress. In 1991 she was cast by Kubrick to play the lead in his Holocaust film Aryan Papers (based on the novel Wartime Lies), but it never got made. We see optimistic Johanna ter Steeg as she was then, in casting photos and also as her more worldly present-day self, imagining frames of the unmade film. Her affecting Dutch accent tells the story of the abortive movie and her terrible disappointment. These dark polished interiors shot in ghostly, gliding slow-mo, remind us of The Shining's corridors or Matthew Barney's Cremaster 3 without the nonsense. It's also kind of art therapy in action: ter Steeg says she thinks she can finally move on now, after 18 years of lingering disappointment. This film proves (if it was in doubt) that the Wilsons are real masters of their medium; it has a timeless quality like 2001: A Space Odyssey, a quality missing from a lot of work on show in London at the moment.

NB: Jane and Louise Wilson - Unfolding The Aryan Papers runs at the BFI Southbank till 26/04. Catch Jane and Louise in conversation at the AA on 27/02 (6:30pm).

There's a sense that Doctor Who is really a fictional Blue Peter for grown-ups and big ass sci-fi for kids. MacGyver he is not -- "The Doctor" (Doctor Qui to some) is way cooler. He has two hearts, is 953 years old, wields a sonic screwdriver, and is about to enter his 11th incarnation. Then there's his TARDIS, the most improbable of spacecrafts; even more unwieldy than the Enterprise, while the Borg Cube pales in comparison. He won't assimilate you -- but his enemies may try to exterminate... There are national institutions (HRH the Queen) and then there are national institutions (Wallace And Gromit). In his work, Mark Wallinger has been prodding and questioning conceptions of British identity in which Doctor Who and his TARDIS (aka Time And Relative Dimensions In Space) play a major role. Grand! Gary Russell, Doctor Who producer, scriptwriter and Whovian, will give a tour and talk about this famous machine, that has now been immortalised by Wallinger in his exhibition as it's just about to dematerialise. Don't hide behind your sofa for this.

NB: this talk is part of a series of Blackboard Lectures. Like The Hayward's Mark Wallinger show they cover a range of topics, from football to artists and science. Other lectures include Briony Fer (26/02), Thomas Demand (28/02) and Marina Warner (01/03). The Russian Linesman exhibition runs at The Hayward till 04/05.

At the risk of sounding like an over-excited teenager, Hofesh Shechter is, well, hot. His credentials are exhaustively impressive -- he studied at the Jerusalem Academy For Dance And Music, joined Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv, arrived in the UK and joined Jasmin Vardimon Dance Company. His choreographic debut won the Third Serge Diaghilev Competition Of Choreography Art; a deluge of commissions followed. He won the Audience Choice Award in The Place Prize 2004, was commissioned by the Robin Howard Foundation to create Uprising (2006), and created In your rooms (2007) when London's three major dance venues, The Place, Southbank Centre and Sadler's Wells, collaborated in a unique producing venture. All well and good, but the dance world was not enough... choreographing a sequence for the opening of Skins secured a foothold on YouTube and a mainstream presence that often eludes contemporary artists. The Roundhouse gig is ambitious -- 17 dancers, 20 musicians, live accompaniment (Shechter also composes and performs his own music...) and jamming sessions before and after the performance. Effectively, a makeover of two existing works with a lot of added extras. Arrogant? Yes. Irritating, even? Nonetheless, the movement content is strong enough to provide substance amidst all this style. Just. So. Cool.

NB: In Your Rooms and Uprising are performed on both 27/02 and 28/02. For Hofesh Shechter fans you can also catch Destino, a collaboration with Dance United and Russell Maliphant at Sadler's Wells on 12/03 and 13/03.

Tala Madani is a 28 year old Iranian American living in the Netherlands. She paints big, splashy cartoons of Middle Eastern men (are they terrorists, suicide bombers maybe?) engaged in comic attempts to disguise themselves with masks, face-paint or camo stripes. They daub at each other with po-faced homoeroticism. She's pitilessly harsh on her subjects. They're caught in the sites of her abject scorn, showing their vanity and self-delusion. In a huge oil sketch called Everybody Wants To Be Chinese, figures pull slanty eyes and stretch masks over their faces. Her scattergun assaults on masculine self-image seem calculated to cause maximum offence, but also humour. Is she a boom-to-bust Saatchi-backed nobody, or a Hogarthian satirist with wisdom and talent beyond her years? No one is quite sure yet and that makes this show exciting. For our part we think she's awesome, if a bit scary. With loose and speedy brushwork she seems to have the same disregard for technique as she does for her subjects. But underneath the brashness it's clear she has an effortless control of expression. Her work has an energy and "fuck-you-world" attitude that you've just got to see.

NB: runs till 28/02. Tala Madani's work is also on view in Unveiled: New Art From The Middle East at The Saatchi Gallery (till 09/05).

Following the high energy anarchy of a temporary occupation at the Royal Academy, nomadic South London art space temporarycontemporary alights in this seven-year side project by artist-curator Anthony Gross. Modifying an Edwardian police station into a complex of studios, independent project spaces, exhibition and event arenas, with an on-line radio station and "Members Club", this collision of Gordon Matta Clark with Assault On Precinct 13 is a gratifyingly propositional enterprise with no manifesto other than that of an experimental self-sufficiency. Merging DIY art centre and "archaeology of institutional structures" the Foucault-tinged launch event features a jam-packed night of freewheeling communion, bonding, and submission, with contributions by Georgina Starr, Tai Shani and Nathan Parker, the Department For The Ladies' Well Being, de Sadean micro-opera by The Readers, film selected by Marc Camille Chaimowicz, serious deadpan artist DJ set by Matthew Stone, electro-milk, live music, special appearances and more. Meta-critique don't get more pleasurable than this.

It might seem strange to actively welcome the return of a law that bans something fun (in this case drinking and dancing), but then again, there is a particularly alluring lustre to theforbidden -- and so thanks are due to Prohibition gang, who celebrate the contraband antics of the Roaring '20s. Before Christmas, revellers gathered at a bar in Bishopsgate dressed as flappers in sequined frocks, feathered headbands and strings of pearls, or with moustachios twirled and waxed, sporting spats, trilbies, dapper suits and elegant canes. But before the last chime of 9 o'clock, the company had vanished, swept aboard buses and taken to a mystery location, which eventually revealed itself to be a gargantuan east London warehouse. Inside, a silent cinema projection clacked through its reel, with spent dancers sitting in front, sipping cocktails from teacups (to best avoid being caught by the police). The other side of the party saw Charlstonners shimmying and shaking to the sound of live bands, gramophone DJs and voluptuous singers. Elsewhere, those without dancing shoes rolled the dice, spun the wheel of fortune, distracted only by the pulchritudinous lucky charms clamped to their sides, batting their eye lashes and puckering their lips. For 2009 the game has been upped, the party continued and the law continuously flouted. We're game, and so should you be.

NB: dress code is 1920s glam.

Given the surprisingly large number of horse-themed venues in London, it's nice to see gigs that can boast some relationship to real hooves and manes -- and we're not talking about extreme brogues and quiffs. Anyway, Minneapolis' Solid Gold are already a much talked about trippy take on MGMT-style psychaedelia. They will no doubt find that comparison goes down well given the hysteria for Goldwasser and VanWyngarden's wares that still persists. Meanwhile Canadian trio We Are Wolves are soon to drop a single on Vice (an unwavering indicator of street heat if nothing else) and come across as a blend of Death From Above 1979, Ratatat and Black Lips grunge. New Yorkers Bear Hands sounding not unlike Animal Collective -- not to mention extending the use of animals in band names -- is also a nice extra here. Especially since most other chances to catch them in the UK would also involve the inexplicably hyped and dire Hockey. And no, not DFA's tentatively titled Hockey Night, but a cringing LCD/Rapture soundalike band with barely an iota of charm about them. Yuck.

Here to promote his sixth studio album Det.riot '67, the Need2Soul promoters bring house legend Kenny Dixon Jr aka Moodymann to EC2 for a rare London appearance. The Michigan based musician has been building his formidable reputation since the early '90s by fusing Detroit's globally celebrated techno blueprint with the city's original heritage of jazz and funk. Dixon firmly stamped his superiority from the scene's other producers in 2004 with the release of his fifth studio album Black Mahogani. Five years on, the score-like masterpiece is still widely considered to be one of the best house long-players ever composed. The enigmatic American has always been more about sensual foreplay than a frantic climax, so whilst the rest of London's clubs drip in Saturday night sweat, expect this to be more tranquil affair of purring grooves, amorous soul and slinky disco cuts. Famously adverse to publicity, it's been three long years since Need2Soul last brought Moodymann to the capital, so if you want to catch the mysterious producer this side of the Olympics now's your chance.

Watching Buster Keaton feels like a backward look at the future. Staircases that turn into escalators and rooms that become human hamster wheels proved too much for silent film fans of the simple and the linear. But it is this combination of the absurd and the everyman that has film dilettantes deifying him as an emblem of the culturally offbeat and one of the greatest comedians of all time. The inability to restrict Keaton to a time and place makes his film, The General, an apt inclusion in Nicolas Bourriaud's Tate Triennial Altermodern, where a debate on today's cultural climate argues for an expansive culture of the world, in place of postmodernism. Set during the American Civil War, Keaton embarks on a passionate affair with a locomotive, and the film contains the most expensive shot of the silent era. Unstudied and spontaneous, witty without words, and yes, the man does all his own stunts with physical routines so complex that those of you brandishing the sedentary stamp and a Wii Fit will cower in shame. Unfortunately audiences and critics failed to appreciate this unique masterpiece, and the movie died a harsh commercial and critical death. Don't make the same mistake.

NB: The General screens at Tate Britain on 01/03, 15/03, 29/03 and 12/04 and Altermodern runs till 26/04.

Gun Crazy is to many the quintessential crime-spree B-Movie noir. Starring Prestatyn's finest export Peggy Cummins as fairground sharp-shooting femme fatale Anne Laurie Starr ("So Appealing! So Dangerous! So lovely to look at!") and John Dall as the good-natured and phlegmatic but firearms obsessed man-puppy Bart Tare, it tells a story of mad love, greed, post-war delinquency and self-destroying tragedy. Stylishly shot by Russell Harlan, this film of thrills and kills is not just a cautionary tale for idle post-war hands but also fun enough to satisfy the casual filmgoer and the film buff alike. It will no doubt amuse with its anachronistic stereotyping and inform with its spot-on observations and trenchant psychological insights. Check out a teenage Russ Tamblyn billed as "Rusty" Tamblyn playing the young Bart. Insouciantly oozing gun toting, trenchcoated style in dark glasses, this movie is inextricably woven into the pattern of French New Wave noir films such as A bout de souffle. Reflected in films of the '70s like Bonnie And Clyde and Badlands through to Natural Born Killers and Kalifornia, its influence will still be felt in so many ways for years to come.

NB: Gun Crazy screens at the BFI Southbank from 27/02 till 12/03. Also of note this week is the release of last year's Plame d'Or winner at Cannes The Class.

This film programme at the ICA brings together three very different arthouse biopics, one grounded in the New York's '80s underground, one in the uneasy union of creativity and privilege, and the last not about an artist at all, but a publisher. Each protagonist is no less significant within their fields, but more varied their practice and influence could not be.

Covering the now familiar ground of '70s/'80s street culture and creativity (spot the graffiti sequences lifted from Wild Style) The Universe Of Keith Haring is a richly illustrated attempt to cover his whole life, work, influences and legacy. Interviews with pretty much every major player in Haring's life, both personal and professional, mixed with vast amounts of archive footage create a thorough and compelling picture of this highly compassionate and original artist.

In stark contrast Peter Beard: Scrapbooks From Africa And Beyond is more didactic than emotional, with the (still living) artist, photographer and diarist taking centre stage. Concentrating on his passion for Africa, despite the unquestionable talent he possesses Beard's legacy comes across as a traditional and somewhat judgemental "white man's love of the wild". Shooting for ELLE or Io Donna, mixing tribes-people with wafer thin models, surrounded by laughing friends from both sides he sees no dichotomy or hypocrisy. A great photographer, with great friends, his life and work are shaped by privilege, and the film lacks the honesty of... Haring.

Contrasting entirely with both these contemplative efforts, Obscene: A Portrait Of Barney Rosset And Grove Press is an energetic and entertaining look at the titular publisher and his role in dragging the American moral compass a little bit further south. The upbeat soundtrack and style take nothing from the importance of the subject matter, featuring a who's who of late-20th Century creative agitators, from John Waters to William Burroughs.

As a triptych the films are complimentary and convincing, despite any internal faults, and will push your cultural IQ up a fair few valuable points.

NB: Obscene: A Portrait Of Barney Rosset And Grove Press screens on 27/02, 28/02, 01/03 and 03/03; The Universe Of Keith Haring screens on 28/02, 01/03, 02/03, 05/03 and 08/03; and finally, Peter Beard: Scrapbooks From Africa And Beyond screens on 28/02, 01/03 and 05/03.

The concept of Loco Dice's much-hyped tour is 14 shows in 14 different cities, all to be held in intimate venues with limited capacities of less than 300 lucky entrants. The Tunisian-born producer cut his teeth spinning hip-hop in his adopted homeland of Germany, as a well-known warm-up DJ for touring American rappers such as Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube. However, it wasn't long before he was in the studio stripping-down house grooves and producing the country's biggest cultural export of minimal techno. The scene's leading labels such as Minus, Ovum and Cocoon were soon pressing his output and by 2006 he had every club in Ibiza dancing to the deep, serotonin-pumping chords of his seminal anthem "El Gallo Negro" and "Seeing Through Shadows". The spring of 2008 saw the release of his well-received debut album 7 Dunham Place, followed by a global promotion tour of over two hundred dates. Those slightly wary of eight hours of stark, repetitive minimalism can relax, as the Under 300 Tour is billed as a journey through the different shades of electronic dance music. Leftroom Records' Matt Tolfrey and Phonica's Hector support for what should be a very enjoyable little party.

NB: less than 100 tickets remain so act now and buy your tickets via Resident Advisor.

It has been a season of strategising for some heavy hitters in London, each tackling the issues of economic crisis and international relations in their own capacity. Slavoj Zizek, psychoanalyst and popular culture/critical theory superstar, will address concerns about the international western trend for governments taking control of private banks and the possible implications of such a move. Zizek's own, often tongue-in-cheek but nonetheless committed approach to a radical rethinking of the political Left may well equate crisis with opportunity, but Zizek has long harboured a grim cynicism regarding the efficacy of existing political structures, and their capacity to adapt. So, will recent changes bring about the radical structural changes Zizek has been calling for, or will free-market capitalism give way to a new, resilient totalitarian ideology? After a recent insistence that the Left's best move is to "do nothing, strategically" will Zizek's next imperative be to call to the Left to spring into action at last?

NB: this event is close to selling out so book quickly.

Peter Saville is a god. Not only is he the mastermind behind some of the most iconic album covers -- think Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures and Closer and New Order's Power, Corruption & Lies (along with the covers for the singles "Blue Monday" and "True Faith") -- but he virtually brought us these legendary bands by co-founding Factory Records in 1978 and putting Manchester at the forefront of the musical and graphic innovation map. Using a reduced, modernist style Saville has made key advances in the field of visual communications, and in recent times he has had a profound effect on the interplay between art, design and advertising. His clients range far and wide, including landmark institutions such as Centre Pompidou, the Barbican and Whitechapel Gallery as well as established fashion brands Yohji Yamamoto, Jil Sander, Dior, Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen and, most recently, Kate Moss. Crowned Creative Director to Manchester City Council in 2004, Saville's achievement list is endless. A CV like his is rare to find. A talk by the man himself, where he will be reviewing his work, ideas and design philosophy promises divine inspiration.

NB: this event is likely to sell out so book quickly.

This concert promises a sumptuous programme given by outstanding performers, the great Mezzo-Soprano Bernarda Fink and the superb Nash Ensemble. Brahms's glorious Liebesliederwalzer Op 52, a cycle of love songs in waltz forms originally written for piano duet and a mixed quartet of vocalists, will be performed in its instrumental arrangement. Brahm's songs are known for their strong melodies integrating elements of German folk music, and lush harmonies, in which most of the chromatism is confined to the inner layers of the musicscape, generating a tension between surging forces and containment. This tension, although perhaps more romanticised, is picked up in Dvorak's Love Songs Op 83, an expression of the young composer's unrequited passion for the Prague actress Josefina Cermakova (who later became his sister-in-law), which were Dvorak's first compositions for voice. His luscious serendade for strings is an absolute highlight of the chamber repertoire. Suk's Meditation was written on the eve of WWI, dedicated to the Czech people, in the hope that the war would bring an end to Czechoslavakia's submission to the Austo-Hungarian Empire. The piece would later become a rallying cry for the Czech nation before and during the German occupation of the country during WWII.

Though the screening and Q&A with Rutger Hauer is already sold out, this Mark Kermode documentary conducts an in-depth examination of the film and aims to shed light on its production, featuring interviews with stars Hauer, Darryl Hannah and director Ridley Scott. Devotees and the simply curious can gorge themselves on Blade Runner knowledge and anecdotes. Post screening, you catch a panel discussion with writers Will Brooker, Paul M Sammon and producer Michael Deeley as they try to resolve the debates on the plot-twist. As resonant today as in 1982, Scott's seminal masterpiece is an existential noir that continues to generate new questions and answers, being a truly adult and nuanced a movie of its genre. An electrifying Hauer heads a small group of replicants (GM humans) in a near and dystopian future, determined to extend their four-year lifecycle by any means and Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is the man to stop them. Like many who love this film, Ridley's tinkering is just fine. We've seen the film so many times and in so many cuts; at the cinema, on TV, VHS and DVD that they've all melded into one dreamtime. Always fascinating, Blade Runner yields new treasures on each new viewing.

NB: this event is close to selling out so book quickly.

One of the leading architects of the Renaissance, whose work transformed the face of Venice and the town of Vicenza, and revolutionised the practise and theory of architecture, Andrea Palladio deserves a grand showing. Sadly the RA show does not quite manage to do justice to his achievements and status -- its layout is unclear, and altogether underwhelming. However, the vast number of sketches and drawings of his system of elevations and plans, along with the intricate architectural models of his principal works -- including Venice's great San Giorgio Maggiore (which any visitor to Venice cannot fail to see, as the great white church on the island of San Giorgio), alone justify a trip. The show also attends to Palladio's enormous legacy within and beyond Italy, to which his masterful treatise on architecture, I quattro libri dell'architettura (1570) was central. Palladio's genius lay in fusing classical principles with contemporary structural solutions, to create buildings of great harmony that defined the architectural face of the humanist high Renaissance. One of the most intriguing features of his drawings of ancient monuments is their idealisation -- Palladio re-invents ancient structures using his own ingenious solutions. Through this re-animation of antiquity he invents a new style -- and it is the revelation of this process that is the most fascinating aspect of the show.

NB: runs till 13/04.

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