An exhibition at this year’s Manchester International Festival (MIF) explored how technology could be deployed to integrate two seemingly disparate worlds – art and football.
Six artists, including British-based Ryan Gander, collaborated with Naostage and several high-profile footballers to create Football City, Art United, an interactive group exhibition conceived by World Cup and Champions League winner Juan Mata.
One exhibit, Privileges of Hindsight 2025, used Naostage’s K System to create a spotlight that dynamically tracked visitors as they moved through the gallery.
By creating an interactive and ever-changing experience, it enabled visitors to envision the spotlight their favourite footballer is placed under – and to reflect on the emotions this might create.
The plug-and-play installation needed to be adaptable to a variety of gallery spaces. It was initially tested at Ryan Gander Studio, Solid House, allowing the team to refine the system’s capabilities before its installation at MIF.
Testing at the studio provided the opportunity to calibrate the tracking behaviour and ensure the spotlight responded seamlessly to visitor movement.
The installation was executed by Naostage’s UK distributor, 2B Heard, using two Kapta units to cover the exhibition space.
The K System’s beaconless tracking capabilities and intuitive Kratos interface enabled conditional logic scripting to control spotlight behaviour, allowing the light to follow visitors precisely, switch between targets and adapt dynamically to multiple people in the gallery.
Naostage’s chief strategy officer, Alexis Reymond, says: “The public reaction has been incredible. Visitors were delighted and often amused to realise they were being followed by the spotlight, bringing a sense of wonder and engagement to the gallery experience.”
