It's an entertaining little romp, is Swandown.  In the recent tradition of double-header (quiet at the back!) road-trip-with-a-purpose films (The Trip, starring Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan, a notable example), comes this: Iain Sinclair and Andrew Kötting travel the breadth of England's waterways in a pedalo shaped like a swan.

The two are some of England's finest creative thinkers, and have opinions of this fair and gentle landscape.  Psychogeography is a term that comes to mind when thinking about this unlikely duo of cinematic heroes.  If you approach this film because you're fans of the two you won't be disappointed but it's not quite London Orbital, Ivul or Gallivant (this is not just a list of random, made up words).  It's a sweet-natured, little film of two friends, both middle-aged white men, swanning up and down the country that they love, talking about it and imparting stories long and lost.  The film says a lot about Sinclair and Kötting, it is probably more telling about them than about the country that they are exploring.  It's a charming, cheerful journey.  It is a delight to be able to join them.

Swandown is on limited release now.

Maybe it's a symptom of living in a city in which the so-called 'great' are also grand self-promoters, but it surprises me to see that The Photographers' Gallery have been relatively quiet about their public programme since their reopening in a new building.  Of course they opened with a bang - a superstar show of large-scale work by Edward Burtynsky that would not have looked out of place at a much larger public museum - but returning to the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize this year, it's a much more gentle affair and shows a very different side to the gallery.

The four nominated artists, each vying for their name to be the one written across a cheque worth £30,000, are Pieter Hugo, Rinko Kawauchi, John Stezaker and Christopher Williams.  There are a few notable things about each of these artists.  The first thing to notice is John Stezaker, and the huge retrospective of his work at Whitechapel Gallery last year (for which he has been nominated for this award) and the large amount of positive press it received.  Clearly, he's a contender here.  The other thing to notice about Stezaker is that he is not a photographer, rather he works with existing photographs.  It's an interesting story in which to read this year's selection.

Hugo is a young South African, nominated for his publication Permanent Error, a review of a dump for technological waste on the outskirts of Accra, Ghana.  Rinko Kawauchi is nominated for her publication Illuminance.  Her photography, in this reviewer's humble opinion, is truly beautiful (her's is the leader photo for this post).  The final nominee si Christopher Williams, an LA-based conceptual photographer, nominated for his exhibition Kapitalischer Realismum in Budweis, Czech Republic.  It is quite a straightforward list, ultimately.  It's the notable differences that make Stezaker stand out, though Hugo is a talented picture maker, and one whose talent is growing incrementally.  We applaud them, and look forward to repeat visits to The Photographers' Gallery, because shows like this are temptingly well-hung.

The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2012 is at The Photographers' Gallery until 09 September.

Luke Fowler won the inaugural Jarman Award in 2008, at thirty years old, and he had a solo show at Serpentine Gallery the following year.  The Guardian raved about his work at the time, calling these works "two of the most fascinating films of recent years."  He is currently the ICA's resident artist, and tomorrow night they screen Fowler's works A Grammar for Listening (Parts 1, 2 and 3).

These films were made in collaboration with artists Lee Paterson, Eric La Casa and Toshiya Tsunoda.  They take as their starting point the historical attempt to locate and classify noise, music and commonplace sounds.  What is the relationship between sound and vision?

In a throwback to sixties' conceptualism, Fowler purges the allusive or manipulative context of sound in relation to the filmed moving image.  With these works, Fowler is commenting as much on the unique grammar of imagery as much as he is the space which sound inhabits.  These are real foundational, vital ideas about how sound functions and how we react to and navigate through it.  These are all quite conceptual terms but, trust me, these are very engaging films and a great way to start a Saturday night in the West End.

Artists' Film Club: A Grammar for Listening (Parts 1, 2 and 3) by Luke Fowler is at the ICA tomorrow, 21 July.