What makes for a real happening in 1997?

Julia Peyton Jones, director of the Serpentine Gallery: "It would be foolish to ignore the presence of new technology and everything it can do in terms of photography and film. This changes the landscape in ways we cannot begin to imagine."

Rose Fenton, London International Festival of Theatre: "A troupe called Delaguardo is coming to us from Buenos Aires. They meld mountaineering, extreme sports, dance and circus, use elemental forces like water, winds and temperature control to put the audience through the experience they are watching."

Stephen Daldry, artistic director, Royal Court: "Sex is coming back into fashion big time. The club energy that's in London at the moment is very sexy. Labour and sex will probably go together. As a culture gains in confidence, sex emerges."

Robert Hewison, author of Culture and Consensus: England art and politics since 1940: "The avant-garde has to escape the institutions of the avant- garde represented by the Tate Gallery of modern art, the Turner Prize and the ICA."

Nancy Tilbery, 24, fashion student, Royal College of Art: "When people start wearing their computers as part of their clothing, that's avant- garde."

Additional research: Colin Blackstock