Sound & Soil is an immersive video installation by Marianna Dixon Williams marking a live, collaborative and experimental performance that took place in Nababeep, South Africa in June 2023. Situated in the far Northern Cape Province, 50 km north of Springbok and 65 km from the Namibian border post-Vioolsdrift, the performance included a collaboration with the Nama Stap Dansers from Steinkopf.

The project is the creative output of a year-long artistic research, in collaboration with VIAD and in association with the University of Johannesburg. In their collective research, artist-researchers Kagiso Kekana and Sonya Rademeyer explored mycelium (fungi) as a metaphor for deepening cultural interconnectedness in Southern Africa. Mycelium exists as the binder to the overall project and images of mycelium are incorporated via video projections into the dance exploration through artistic practice.

Marianna Dixon Williams (b. Augusta, Georgia, 1990) builds handmade electronic objects and develops environmental installations that question the ability of this world to be simulated, emulated and measured digitally. Williams has exhibited throughout the United States, Europe, and Africa and has completed studio projects in sites ranging from the Arctic Circle to South Africa’s Western Cape. Notable exhibitions include The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C., the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, the James A. Michener Museum and the European Cultural Center’s Palazzo Bembo in tandem with the 59th Venice Art Biennale. Williams has acted as a Design Fellow at Penn Praxis, a consultant for Georgia’s COVID-19 Taskforce and an organizer for community-driven arts spaces, and has produced commissioned installations for ShopCore Properties and Berkshire Hathaway Real Estate. Williams is a recipient of a Community Foundation grant and is currently an Assistant Professor of Digital Art & Design at Mount Holyoke College.