The Prompt

Living inside hope means recognizing that it exists not just in grand gestures, but in the spaces between things - between past and present, between communities, between sound and silence. In Neolithic Cannibals, hope manifests as an active force through the creation of a "compassionate listening space" that bridges multiple divides: temporal (connecting Neolithic settlers with contemporary youth), social (bringing together different Brighton communities), and cultural (merging experimental sound art with social activism).

The project embodies hope not as a distant ideal but as practical, lived reality. Young artists from Whitehawk Estate (in the top 10% most deprived in the UK) engaged with their heritage through sound - creating experimental recordings that honor both the ancient ritual space of the causewayed enclosure and their present-day community. This creative process transformed archaeological remains from distant artifacts into living connections, while simultaneously making space for voices that often go unheard in gallery settings.

Hope here is not passive - it is built through deliberate action: through workshops that gave young people access to sophisticated sound art techniques, through the creation of multi-speaker installations that demanded attention from festival audiences, and through explicit engagement with issues of class and educational inequality. The project demonstrates how art can serve as both a bridge and a mirror - reflecting communities back to themselves while creating connections between them.

As someone who grew up on Whitehawk Estate, this work represents my own journey of living inside hope rather than admiring it from afar. It manifests in the belief that working-class stories and perspectives deserve to be heard, that young people from council estates can be sound artists, and that experimental art can be a tool for social change. Most importantly, it shows how hope can be collective - built through collaboration between young artists, social justice campaigners, and cultural institutions, all working together to imagine and create change.

The Project

A socially engaged sound art project and exhibition from the young people of Whitehawk and East Brighton, and artist Simon James, who was born and raised in Whitehawk.

Overlooking Whitehawk Estate to the East and the rest of the city to the West sits Whitehawk Hill, a species-rich chalk grassland visible from far and wide and easily distinguishable with its TV mast and the grandstand for Brighton Racecourse.

In 1932, Cecil Curwen and a team of archaeologists and labourers used sound and listening through an early geophysical technique called ‘Bosing’, to reveal a  5500-year-old Neolithic camp here, and although much is uncertain about how this 'Causewayed Enclosure' was used, we do know that it was a place of communion, celebration, and ritual -  a place for people to connect.

95 years later, a group of young Whitehawk sound artists have listened to and sounded the contemporary environment of East Brighton, using the Whitehawk Hill Neolithic Camp as a focal point and inspiration for their sonic explorations.

The sounds they have uncovered and created are presented here as a looping 20-minute multi-speaker collage, a contemporary artefact that sits alongside finds, illustrations, plans and reports from Cecil Curwen and colleagues’ archaeological excavations. 

In this compassionate listening space we hope the imaginative and fantastical sounds will invite deep listening to an area that can often be considered hidden and unheard.

Neolithic Cannibals at Brighton Festival image and video gallery here.

Review by Angus Carlyle. Professor of Sound and Landscape at UAL

Centred around a circle of speakers on the ceiling and circles on the floor mapping the contours of a vast and ancient ritual space in what is now Whitehawk, this have-to-see Brighton Festival exhibition by my friend Simon James and activist organisation Class Divide traces the complex yet common grounds that can be bridged between archaeology, deep listening, social inequity and an engaged inflection of sound practice that makes stars of an incredibly committed group of 11-14 year olds whose delicate speaker feedback experiments, synthesiser workouts, vocal improv, chalk scores and field recordings form the soundtrack to the installation (with an archaeology tool providing huge sub-bass in the new Lighthouse Project Space). 

Glowing on one wall is the film by Curtis James composed of objects from the ‘pre-historical’ site, cymatic sequences, LIDAR, drone footage, archival diagrams and photographs (examples of all of these are present in vitrines or in the beautifully designed materials by Emily Macaulay).

The context of the campaign for re-balancing educational opportunity in Brighton is also given space in the show - some of the greatest inequalities attach to the same area that was the Neolithic site and it is from a school there that come the amazing sound artists who collaborated with Simon.

The Artist Statement

Simon James is a sound artist whose practice centers on deep listening to overlooked spaces and unheard voices. Through his work, environmental field recordings merge with electronic and electro-acoustic elements to create sonic landscapes that challenge listeners to engage with forgotten or dismissed sounds. His approach is both exploratory and instinctive, focusing on timbral shaping and discovering the subtle sounds that exist between more obvious soundmarks.

Coming from a working class background and being self-trained, Simon brings a distinct perspective to sound art, using listening as a window or new mode of enquiry. His practice has evolved over three decades, moving from commercial sound design for radio, TV, and film to increasingly focus on natural and constructed environmental recordings. This shift reflects a growing sensitivity to quieter, hidden sounds that parallel the experiences of neglected communities and voices and what happens when you listen ‘beyond sound’.

James's work often combines social practice with experimental sound art, creating work that serve both artistic and activist purposes. Through workshops and collaborative projects, he shares his deep listening practice with diverse participants, believing strongly in sound's potential to catalyze meaningful social change. His installations and performances frequently create what he terms 'compassionate listening spaces' - environments that invite audiences to engage with challenging social and political themes through careful sonic attention.

Neolithic Cannibals is a Class Divide production, directed by Simon James, commissioned by Brighton Festival and produced in partnership with Lighthouse.

Sound artists

Amelia 

Amy 

Gracie-May

Harry

Izzy 

Leonie 

Ieuan

Sophia  

Tassia 

Additional sound design

Simon James

Creative Direction for Class Divide and video projections

Curtis James

Exhibition design

Emily Macaulay