Occupation(s) Musician
Designer Website simonacastricum.com | Name Simona Castricum Role Singer | |
 | ||
Genres Underground Pop
Techno Pop
New Beat Instruments Vocals
keyboards
drums
guitar Labels Girls Who Smoke Poke
Refectory5
LISTEN Records Associated acts Ana Nicole
Fluorescent
Simona Kapitolina Albums Exotic Ladies of Birobidzhan | ||
Simona castricum no allegiance live on 3rrr breakfasters
Simona Castricum is a musician, performer, DJ and architecture academic from Melbourne, Australia. She is a PhD candidate in architecture at the University of Melbourne School of Design. She performs under the moniker SIMONA.
Contents
- Simona castricum no allegiance live on 3rrr breakfasters
- Simona castricum own live at mpavilion 2016
- Architecture
- Music
- Writing Advocacy
- Fluorescent
- Ana Nicole
- Simona Castricum
- References
Simona castricum own live at mpavilion 2016
Architecture
As a PhD candidate in architecture at the University of Melbourne, Simona’s creative and intellectual research practise explores how gender nonconforming, transgender and queer experiences and identity exist in architectural space and professional design practises. She has presented her work ‘When Program is The Enemy of Function…’ at the 13th International AHRA Conference ‘Architecture & Feminisms’ at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden and at ‘Queering Architecture’ for 2017’s Melbourne Design Week at the National Gallery of Victoria International. Graduating from RMIT University with a Bachelor of Architecture (Hons) in 2001, Simona worked as an exhibition designer at the Jewish Museum of Australia and a graphic designer for Melbourne design firms Tom Kovac and ARM Architecture.
Music
Simona has stated her biographical songwriting is influenced by her life and identity as a gender nonconforming transgender woman, both openly and closeted. Musically, her sound is describes as “reverb drenched vocals and industrial strength percussion”. Simona has said her influences come from interactions between electronic and shoegaze styles and cites bands Depeche Mode, New Order, My Bloody Valentine, Curve (band) and both Detroit techno and Belgian New Beat genres as influences.
Live, Harry Hughes of The Music, says she, "commands... attention with her pseudo-militaristic movements and bold style". Sara Savage of i-D has written Simona presents “a kind of cathartic club music that’s reflective of her live show—which often induces audiences into a pulsating dancefloor”.
Simona Castricum has previously recorded under the names Simona Kapitolina and Fluorescent and was a member of bands Ana Nicole and Trans Pixies. Simona was also the founder of the Melbourne queer record label Girls Who Smoke Poke and club night The Shock of The New.
Writing & Advocacy
As a writer, Simona Castricum has contributed articles to publications including Vice Magazine, i-D and Thump on visibility and access for queer and transgender performers. She has also had personal memoirs published in The Guardian, The Huffington Post and Archer Magazine. Her short non-fiction and critique writing on sexuality, gender and architecture have appeared in print in The Lifted Brow, Mongrel Rapture: The Architecture of Ashton Raggatt McDougall From the Heart: Women Of Letters and Doing It: Women Tell the Truth About Great Sex.
Simona is an advocate for safer spaces and inclusivity of queer and gender diverse artists. She has appeared at Australian music conferences BIGSOUND and LISTEN as a moderator and panelist advocating for greater representation and equity in music and performance for gender nonconforming artists.