It’s beginning; you can hear the dull tap-tap-tapping of stilettos and winklepickers in hollow rooms, crowded with people.  There is the tinkling of glasses but the wine is warm.  Go for red, plus it’ll hurt less in the morning and you’ll have to do it all again tomorrow anyway.  That’s right: it’s Frieze week.  Your Culture Editor has been spoiled for choice this year, with the official Cultural Olympiad and the related-yet-‘unofficial’ cultural events taking place over and in the months leading up to summer.  September saw the opening of the Liverpool Biennial, and October also brings with it the BFI London Film Festival, the Serpentine Gallery Marathon as well as the usual roster of world-class art on offer in our great city.  So what do we have to look forward to over the coming weeks?  Well, I’m glad you asked.

As already mentioned we have the big two: Frieze Art Fair and the BFI London Film Festival.  Frieze launches a brand new event this year: Frieze Masters, a marketplace for works made pre-21^st century.  Following the middling success of Frieze New York, attempts at conglomerating art continues, with the focus now also on the historic as well as the contemporary.  Capitalising on the visiting art world crowd, the Serpentine Gallery host their annual Marathon on the very same weekend, this year based on the concept of ‘memory’.  It has one of the most delicious line-ups ever assorted for any event anywhere.  Kicking off with a five hour performance by Tarek Atoui, the marathon will bring together names including Ed Atkins, Dara Birnbaum, Daniel Buren, Herzog & De Meuron, Douglas Coupland, Michael Craig-Martin, Adam Curtis, Brian Dillon, Jefferson Hack, David Lynch, Sissel Tolaas, Marina Warner, Richard Wentworth, Gilbert & George, Liam Gillick, Douglas Gordon and Michael Stipe.  No less starry is this year’s London Film Festival.  Under new directorship, there are premieres of new films by and with Tim Burton, Michael Haneke, Ben Affleck, Jacques Audiard, the Rolling Stones, Bill Murray, Monty Python, George Clooney and Slavoj Zizek.  There will also be women there.

And art?  We haven’t even begun!  New exhibitions on display to coincide with Frieze include works by John Akomfrah, David Bailey, Hannah Sawtell, Luc Tuymans, Liam Gillick, Franz West, Noble & Webster, Eddie Peake & Prem Sahib, Fischli & Weiss, Damien Hirst, Joana Vasconcelos, Jamie Shovlin, Bedwyr Williams and more artists than in the ICA bar.  If you’re prepared for a busy October, then you’ll be in luck, and you know you’re revered Because Magazine Culture section will be right there with you and for you.

Who’s going to let a shortage of funding ruin one of the most exciting annual events on London’s cultural calendar?  Certainly not Alpha-ville, that’s who.  After three years, the festival of art, technology, music and web culture have condensed programming into separate public strands, with both events rocking Hackney this weekend.

Alpha-ville Live is a night of live music and performance, this Saturday at the Hackney Empire.  The evening will see the London premiere of a collaboration between Mexican electronic musician Murcof with Simon Geilfus of visual collective AntiVJ.  Semi-transparent panoramic screens will turn the Empire into one huge immersive audience experience.  And not only; also on the bill is Geilfus and Murcof independently, lining up alongside The Field, of the Köln-based techno label and only the act’s second solo performance in over four years, and a live AV from Olaf Bender aka Byetone, sound and visual artist and co-founder of Raster-Noton with Carsten Nicolai.

And the sound and fury does not end there.  Across the road, Hackney Picturehouse present Unfinity, an eclectic programme of moving image works, that include animation, experimental works, documentary, music video and computer-generated imagery.  Followers of Alpha-ville will know how well they know film and video, and the line-up looks as strong as ever, featuring works by Jeff Desom, Sougwen, Kirby Ferguson, Danel Franke & Cedric Keifer, Kangnim Kim and Dan Ojari.  As if that weren’t enough, the organisation will present the Alpha-ville Future of Moving Image Award, presented in partnership with Little White Lies and Shooting People, dedicated to finding the most exciting talent pushing moving image further into the twenty-first century.  This promises to be the most original and fun night in town this weekend.

Tickets and further information can be found here.

Alpha-ville Live is at Hackney Empire on Saturday 06 October.

Unfinity: Alpha-ville 2012 is at Hackney Picturehouse on Saturday 06 October.

We try to keep repeat posts to an absolute minimum here on Because Magazine’s Culture section, to make sure that you only see the finest and newest of what’s hot in and around town.  However, there are times when a near-rerun is the only thing that will do because, well, let’s face it, there are certain news stories that are hot-to-trot and fit-to-print annually.

The Turner Prize list has been announced and a show of the four nominated artists has opened to the public at Tate Britain.  They’re young (in art terms) and so very now.  Spartacus Chetwynd turned up to the opening last night wearing a beard.  The 39 year old (female) is probably the only contemporary multimedia/performance artist who is close to being a household name.  Along with Paul Noble, Elizabeth Price and Luke Fowler, we are being treated to one of the strongest line-ups in recent years.  Of course, there are the perennial claims that the event is one big publicity-seeking exercise (see Chetwynd’s piece turning her allotted gallery space into a giant-sized diorama, or Noble’s excremental sculptures) but these are four artists who can stake legitimate claims to working with a great degree of experimentation, historical weighting and precise execution (even if, in Chetwynd’s case that may only be accidental).

Who’s to win?  It’ll be close, and, frankly, they are all in with a strong shot.  Chetwynd might be the favourite, but Noble has a fine art aesthetic on his side.  Luke Fowler is an award show darling (winner of the inaugural Jarman Award in 2008, and host of a retrospective at Serpentine Gallery the following year – at the age of 31).  Until your dear Culture Editor can cultivate some political clout, my hypothetical vote is for Elizabeth Price.  The Woolworths Choir of 1979, which I saw in a stunning display at Baltic, Gateshead, and which also played at London trendhunting hotspot MOT International, is a work for the ages.

The Turner Prize 2012 is on until 06 January at Tate Britain.