The Metahub @ White Nights, Brighton 29.10.11

One of the centrepieces of this year is The Metahub , a co commission for Nuit Blanche Amiens and White Nights Brighton, which in the words of its creators aims at 'Beaming the cultural life of the festivals into the hearts of both cities'. The idea is an interesting one; live footage from various events around the festivals is streamed directly to a team of audio and visual artists, who then remix it for projection onto a big white sculpture, which at first glimpse resembles a very colourful pile of cardboard boxes. After a while though, the atmospheric music and huge variety of visual material start to become quite hypnotic, and it is at this point that The Metahub really comes alive. All around people can be seen staring, quite compelled as live views of things as familiar as a band playing, or some people dancing, morph and blend seamlessly together to create some really quite surreal imagery.

Whilst it is never going to be possible for an installation like this to recreate the energy and atmosphere of the actual events depicted themselves, the way it gives a sense that they are all interlinked does serve to add an extra dimension to the festival as a whole. As a piece of art, it is quite beautiful, and it will be very interesting to see where the project’s creators can take it next.