Medicinal cannabis is new, exciting and contentious. With expert contributions from science, industry, government, law and patient advocates, this talk will address the challenges faced by patients, researchers, doctors and regulators in Australia and around the world.

WHAT: Talk
WHEN: Monday 29 Oct, 6:30-8pm
WHERE: Charles Perkins Centre
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here

It’s THE Bob Ross’s birthday. So to celebrate Cork and Chroma are throwing a Boss Ross inspired painting session teaching you how to paint his iconic American landscapes.

WHAT: Workshop
WHEN: Monday 29 Oct, 7-10pm
WHERE: Cork & Chroma Sydney
HOW MUCH: $70, more details here

Curated by Yarran Gatsby and Jenny Anagostopoulos, Tracing the Archipelago is an exhibition that explores the idiosyncrasies involved in occupying or navigating difference spaces.

WHAT: Exhibition Opening
WHEN: Tuesday 30 Oct, 5-8pm
WHERE: Kudos Gallery
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here

The Constellations is a talk series that explores the intersection of art and science. This month artist Baden Pailthorpe alongside his collaborator Aaron Coutts will discuss the use of data in art.

WHAT: Talk
WHEN: Tuesday 30 Oct, 7pm
WHERE: 107 Projects
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here

Halloween is upon us, so it’s time for all the freaks and weirdos and ghouls and heavenly rejects to come out and play! Head along to The Bearded Tit for a frightful night themed around Vampires. There will be a prize for best dressed and performances all night long.

WHAT: Party
WHEN: Wednesday 31 Oct, 4pm-12am
WHERE: The Bearded Tit
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here

The weirdest Macbeth you’ll ever see is returning to PACT for a new version this Halloween. This story of malevolent ambition and uncanny horror pulls apart Shakespeare’s original play and stitches it back together with 50s pop songs and high energy movements.

WHAT: Theatre
WHEN: Wednesday 31 Oct, 7:30pm
WHERE: PACT Centre for Emerging Artists
HOW MUCH: $25-$33, more details here

All Blessings, All Curses presents recent and newly commissioned works by Sydney-based artist, Justine Youssef. Born in the heart of Western Sydney, Youssef’s practice explores the stifling white heat of global xenophobia with deeply personal and universal ruminations that layer the smell, sights and textures of her ancestral homeland, Lebanon.

WHAT: Exhibition Opening
WHEN: Thursday 1 Nov, 6-8pm
WHERE: 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here

Permutations by Kyana Tan explores the way data is continually produced, manipulated, reordered, and made sensory. The works in this exhibition play with the seemingly endless permutations of data to investigate the scale and scope of data as well as its elegance and anxieties.

WHAT: Exhibition Opening
WHEN: Thursday 1 Nov, 6-8pm
WHERE: Dominik Mersch Gallery
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here

Head down into the Kings Cross Carpark to find Alaska Projects and their upcoming exhibitions by Jason Phu and Heath Franco. Franco’s exhibition Breathing Room: Carpetcell promises a new turn for the artists performance practice, whereas Phu will be exhibiting new paint works.

WHAT: Exhibition Opening
WHEN: Friday 2 Nov, 6-8pm
WHERE: ALASKA Projects
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here

Inspired by flowers and plants, Terra Firma are launching a 2019 Terra Firma Diary. To celebrate they have curated an exhibition of ceramics, paintings, collages and textiles at Airspace Projects.

WHAT: Exhibition Opening and Launch
WHEN: Friday 2 Nov, 6-8pm
WHERE: Airspace Projects
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here

Oral history – like the visual arts – is a diverse, co-constructed practice that challenges conventional autonomous production and identities. This morning discussion will explore ways in which artists have worked with oral history, featuring speakers Deborah Beck, Fabri Blacklock and Therese Sweeney.

WHAT: Talk
WHEN: Saturday 3 Nov, 11am-1pm
WHERE: Verge Gallery
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here

The world is changing. So are the dangers facing us. To survive, we must pay attention. Go beyond the hype. Interrogate how we got to this point, and where we are going next. The ninth Festival of Dangerous Ideas returns for 2018 over two days on the iconic, richly storied venue of Cockatoo Island.

WHAT: Festival
WHEN: 3-4 Nov, 12-5:30pm
WHERE: Cockatoo Island
HOW MUCH: $79 – $159, more details here

Watch Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924) on the silver screen while listening to a newly commissioned live score by acclaimed Sydney electronic artist Lucy Cliché. This first Soviet sci-fi film is an extravagant utopian fantasy, kicking off a new film series, Cosmic Futures, at AGNSW.

WHAT: Film
WHEN: Sunday 4 Nov, 2-3:30pm
WHERE: Art Gallery of New South Wales
HOW MUCH: $12-$15, more details here

Two of Australia’s most prolific satire writers join forces to talk about how and why they do the things they do. Join James Colley in conversation with Nakkiah Lui as they discuss whether there’s such thing as an Australian sense of humour, the motivation behind their own work, and the role satire plays in this new age. Or, they’ll goof off immediately and just talk for an hour about what TV shows they’re bingeing right now.

WHAT: Comedy
WHEN: Sunday 4 Nov, 5:30-6:30pm
WHERE: Giant Dwarf
HOW MUCH: $25-$30, more details here