Described as a “grotto of visual excess” Julie Verhoeven’s exploration of gender identity past and present is a disturbing explosion of kitsch and womanhood.

This group show curated by Peter J. Amdam brings together artists who accentuate how art operates in an era of new media, and in a world which is both human and non-human at the same time.

Manual Cinema’s Mementos Mori is a feature-length cinematic shadow play that combines overhead projectors, intricate paper puppets, sound effects, a live onstage chamber ensemble, and live actors to discuss digital culture.

For Sun/Screen, Penelope Umbrico used an iPhone to re-photograph images cropped from thousands of sunset images shared online, this process of capturing images directly from the computer screen creates a moiré pattern.

The beginning of the 20th century was an era of new technology, artistic ingenuity and creative entrepreneurship — comparable to today’s world where developments in the field of digital imagery succeed one another rapidly.

Portuguese artists João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva will present a magical, immersive film installation. Their kaleidoscopic world created by 27 16mm films and two camera obscura works, takes viewers on an imaginative journey into science, philosophy and religion.

For Sophie Calle’s first solo exhibition in China, the artist has covered an entire wall with images from her Cash Machine project. The piece first originated in 1988 and was extended 15 years later.

Hauser & Wirth’s gallery on Savile Row is a space that has been transformed in many possible ways, but this time the micro environment created for Pipilotti Rist’s show emerged as an unexpected -nevertheless pleasant- surprise.

For the 12th year, London Short Film Festival returns with an outstanding programme of short films. Running 9 – 18 January, the festival aims to prove that the UK is truly a hotbed of film creativity.

Moving sites in spring 2015, Manchester-based cross art form organisation, Cornerhouse, closes its current space with nine artists, filmmakers and musicians celebrating the iconic venue: Rosa Barba, Niklas Goldbach and more.

Film London has announced Ursula Mayer as winner of the 2014 Jarman Award. The Austrian-born filmmaker was selected from a shortlist of 10 visionary and boundary-crossing visual artists working in the UK. An annual celebration of experimentation, the award recognises artist filmmakers whose creative practice defies conventional classification.

Frederick Wiseman’s National Gallery takes the audience behind the scenes of a London institution and into the heart of a museum inhabited by pieces of Western art from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. National Gallery is the portrait of a place, its way of working and relations with the world.

Derek Jarman is one of Britain’s most important and ground-breaking artists of the late 20th century. The Jarman Award celebrates some of the most innovative filmmaking in the UK today. The 10 shortlisted practitioners all demonstrate a spirit of experimentation and inspiration.

The December/ January issue of Aesthetica is available to purchase online and in stores internationally. In Issue 62, we focus on the unconventional. It’s a celebration of practitioners who are experimenting in their field.

BAFTA accredited Aesthetica Short Film Festival showcases international short films, highlighting established and emerging filmmakers across 10 genres.

Electricity opens up the world of epilepsy by creating a unique visual narrative which captures the first-person experience of living with the condition.

Laura Buckley expertly combines moving image, kinetics, sound, light, sculpture and digital print, to recontextualise the everyday. She uses scanned imagery to create projected videos that are combined with footage from her life.

Shezad Dawood’s Towards the Possible Film brings together new film, textile painting and neon work, alongside his selected works from the collection to inspire a meeting point between modernism and mysticism, mapping out enquiries into histories of place and the significance of landscape and culture.

Since a few Basel gallerists put their passion and determination behind an ambitious vision in 1970, Art Basel has continued to grow in size and is now recognised as a top international art show.

Presented by London based independent film company Day for Night, Nordic Film Festival returns to the UK with a diverse mix of works, showcasing some of the most celebrated and emerging filmmaking talent of the Nordic region.