Blab Tech
Immersive Museum Show Turns Soccer Into Interactive Art Experience
A new exhibition at the Mercer Labs Museum of Art and Technology in New York City is turning the world’s most popular sport into a multimedia art experience. Football is Freedom, created by Israeli artist Roy Nachum in partnership with Rohan Marley and the Marley family, is on view through July 31, 2026. The show spans 40,000 square feet across three floors and contains 15 distinct installations that use 360‑degree projection, volumetric light, robotics, digital media and interactive systems to explore football as a shared cultural language.
The exhibition is organized into three conceptual chapters—past, present and future. The past section draws on Bob Marley’s lifelong relationship with football, weaving his words, imagery and legacy into the narrative. The present section captures the collective energy of the modern game, while the future section imagines how emerging technologies might reshape both sport and shared experience. According to the museum’s website, each installation is treated as its own spatial experiment rather than a single immersive environment.
One of the most prominent pieces, Field of Dreams, surrounds visitors with a cinematic landscape that projects a 360‑degree view of a football field. In The Journey, mirrored surfaces, light and reflection create an infinity environment inspired by movement and collective experience. Future presents a speculative training ground where glowing architectural forms, robotics and athletic performance converge inside a futuristic arena.
Interactivity is a core element of the exhibition. Visitors can create digital characters that become part of the evolving Crown Kids ecosystem, a feature that encourages participation and personal connection. The Cello invites audiences to shape an ever‑changing musical composition performed by robotic instruments, while Words of Freedom showcases a robotic arm that continuously writes and erases messages in sand, turning language into a meditation on memory and impermanence.
The quieter moments of the show emphasize material experimentation. In Unity, Bob Marley’s lyrics are translated into Braille and then converted into mechanical musical compositions, reframing language as both tactile and auditory. Across the exhibition, familiar technologies are repurposed as creative tools, blurring the boundaries between installation art, digital design and museum experience.
According to the museum’s description, the goal of Football is Freedom is to demonstrate that technology alone does not create meaningful experiences. Instead, the show uses light, movement, interaction and spatial design to build environments that encourage participation and invite visitors to explore how play, creativity and collective identity can occupy the same space.
The exhibition is part of Mercer Labs’ broader mission to blend art and technology. The museum, co‑created by Roy Nachum and Michael Cayre, opened in February 2024 after a soft opening and has since hosted a range of immersive installations. Football is Freedom adds a sports‑centric theme to the museum’s portfolio and highlights the Marley family’s ongoing engagement with cultural projects.
Visitors to the show can experience the full narrative by moving through the three floors, each offering a different sensory and interactive experience. The exhibition’s end date is July 31, 2026, after which the museum will rotate to its next program.
In summary, Football is Freedom is a 15‑installation, 40,000‑square‑foot immersive exhibition that uses advanced projection, robotics and interactive media to examine football as a global connector. The show, created by Roy Nachum with Rohan Marley and the Marley family, is currently on view at the Mercer Labs Museum of Art and Technology in New York City and will remain open until July 31, 2026.
The exhibition is organized into three conceptual chapters—past, present and future. The past section draws on Bob Marley’s lifelong relationship with football, weaving his words, imagery and legacy into the narrative. The present section captures the collective energy of the modern game, while the future section imagines how emerging technologies might reshape both sport and shared experience. According to the museum’s website, each installation is treated as its own spatial experiment rather than a single immersive environment.
One of the most prominent pieces, Field of Dreams, surrounds visitors with a cinematic landscape that projects a 360‑degree view of a football field. In The Journey, mirrored surfaces, light and reflection create an infinity environment inspired by movement and collective experience. Future presents a speculative training ground where glowing architectural forms, robotics and athletic performance converge inside a futuristic arena.
Interactivity is a core element of the exhibition. Visitors can create digital characters that become part of the evolving Crown Kids ecosystem, a feature that encourages participation and personal connection. The Cello invites audiences to shape an ever‑changing musical composition performed by robotic instruments, while Words of Freedom showcases a robotic arm that continuously writes and erases messages in sand, turning language into a meditation on memory and impermanence.
The quieter moments of the show emphasize material experimentation. In Unity, Bob Marley’s lyrics are translated into Braille and then converted into mechanical musical compositions, reframing language as both tactile and auditory. Across the exhibition, familiar technologies are repurposed as creative tools, blurring the boundaries between installation art, digital design and museum experience.
According to the museum’s description, the goal of Football is Freedom is to demonstrate that technology alone does not create meaningful experiences. Instead, the show uses light, movement, interaction and spatial design to build environments that encourage participation and invite visitors to explore how play, creativity and collective identity can occupy the same space.
The exhibition is part of Mercer Labs’ broader mission to blend art and technology. The museum, co‑created by Roy Nachum and Michael Cayre, opened in February 2024 after a soft opening and has since hosted a range of immersive installations. Football is Freedom adds a sports‑centric theme to the museum’s portfolio and highlights the Marley family’s ongoing engagement with cultural projects.
Visitors to the show can experience the full narrative by moving through the three floors, each offering a different sensory and interactive experience. The exhibition’s end date is July 31, 2026, after which the museum will rotate to its next program.
In summary, Football is Freedom is a 15‑installation, 40,000‑square‑foot immersive exhibition that uses advanced projection, robotics and interactive media to examine football as a global connector. The show, created by Roy Nachum with Rohan Marley and the Marley family, is currently on view at the Mercer Labs Museum of Art and Technology in New York City and will remain open until July 31, 2026.
