With the arrival of the Olympics in east London, the world's attention has turned to the creative heartland of the capital. What does this mean for the artists, designers, musicians and publishers making their mark here, who face rising rents and an endlessly increasing variety of artisanal coffee? Dazed & Confused surveys those living and working in its own back yard, and asks 'Is East London Dead?' Inside, photographer Jamie Hawkesworth documents over 20 emerging talents from the worlds of music, fashion, art, photography and literature, while we talk to artists, writers and venue owners from Tim Noble and Sue Webster to The Foundry's Tracey Moberly and Savage Messiah's Laura Oldfield Ford for their insights into how the area has evolved, and the challenges it faces.

On the cover is artist Theo-Mass Lexileictous, one of the ten eccentric creative characters from 'London', a shoot by legendary Swiss art photographer Walter Pfeiffer with styling by Dazed senior fashion editor Robbie Spencer. The rest of the issue's fashion heads further afield, as Chikashi Suzuki and Karen Langley shoot Tokyo's young creatives, and Jim Goldberg and Katie Shillingford take a trip around the beautiful and damned district of Pigalle, Paris.

Elsewhere, the magazine psychoanalyses enigmatic electronic music producer Actress in a rare in-depth encounter; and we get ready to E-Vapor-8 with five young artists bringing back the rush of rave. Mark Stewart of 70s provocateurs The Pop Group returns with bowel-crushing bass, Miuccia Prada and Elsa Schiaparelli have Impossible Conversations at NY's Metropolitan Museum, Angelina Jolie talks up her directorial debut, while German artist Thomas Demand goes nuclear. Furthermore, you can meet sport-hating French academic Marc Perelman, France's hottest new author Laurent Binet, and ultimately bow before the majesty of none-more-epic rock duo Tenacious D, as they prepare for what they claim to be the greatest comeback of all time…