During the four days of FLUX:Ponce City Market, curator and artist Ben Coleman staged a PA Takeover, hijacking Ponce City Market’s PA system, and creating unexpected points of departure from the typical shopper experience.

Sound design has been used in retail spaces for decades in very specific ways, to put us in a gentle kind of hypnotized state, to create a world separate from our typical experience, crucially, a world where we are more likely to linger and spend.

PA Takeovers create moments of discontinuity. Sounds from within the depths of the building that typically go unheard may occasionally come to the foreground, jostling with noises from the world outside that have the chance to slip through the cracks for a weekend. As retail sound moves from the background to the foreground, extraordinary noises catch the ears of visitors, prompting curiosity and surprise.

Contributions to this sonic work were sourced from Atlantans via comments cards and social media, in response to the following prompts: What sound evokes a powerful memory for you? What sounds come to mind when you think of Atlanta? …the South?

Cicadas. Melting ice in a metal drain. Shopping mall door pings. Woodpeckers. It's a small world at Disney. Listening through Brother's door to muffled Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. The sound of my rickety ceiling fan. My dogs' collars. Grease frying in a pan. The sound of a Marta train slowing down. Bicycle bells. The sound for 'The More You Know' public safety announcements. Air bubbles under water. Stirring sugar into iced tea. Wind in trees. The neurotic clicking of a pen. Lawnmower. The afilador in Argentina. Mockingbirds. My mother's high heels clicking on the floor as she walked down the hall when she was 'dressed up'. The hum of the car engine from sleeping with my ear to the floor in the back of the car on long car trips as a kid. The squishy noise a beanbag makes when you sit or move around on it. Old school radio - AM. Sound of the air conditioning cutting on. The sound of calling my parents house - dialing the numbers. Apple start-up chime. Bells in mass in Eucharist. Andy Griffiths theme song. Wind chimes. Speed boat motor. Rooster crowing all hours of the night. Brothers' laughter. Starter on '54 Cadillac. Internet dial-up tone. Back and forth tone on AOL Instant Messenger. Sucking out the last of an iced coffee from a 12oz plastic cup. Check-out scanner tones. Voicemail. Amtrak train lines. Oscillating fan…