Simona Castricum is an Australian musician, performer, DJ and architecture academic. Since the late 1990s she has performed as Fluorescent, Simona Kapitolina and Simona and has been a member of a band, Ana Nicole. As from 2017 she was a PhD candidate and tutor in architecture at the University of MelbourneSchool of Design.
Early years
Simona Castricum was born in about 1975 and grew up in the Mornington Peninsula area to attend local primary and secondary schools. She later recalled, "there was such a reverence for masculinity and toxic masculinity", and cited her music role models as Sylvester, Boy George, Grace Jones, Annie Lennox and Laurie Anderson. Castricum started her music career as a DJ in the late 1990s playing in queer clubs.
Architecture
As a PhD candidate in architecture at the University of Melbourne, Castricum'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 Architecturein 2001, Castricum 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
In 2002, under the name Fluorescent, Castricum began recording her debut album, Post Nuclear, which was released in October 2005 via the Refectory5 label. She performed, produced and wrote its eight tracks and was joined in the studio by Fiona di Lanzo on bass guitar and Naomi. Also in 2005 Castricum and di Lanzo created a poster depicting a design for a $1000 note, with an image ofKylie Minogue on one side and Nick Cave on the other. In the following year Fluorescent issued a remix album, Cattle Brand, with Simona joined by Askew, Naomi, Greg Dickinson, Peter Finger and Harris Robtois. Castricum has stated her biographical song writing is influenced by her life and identity as a gender nonconforming transgender woman, both openly and closeted. Musically, her sound was described in July 2016 by Clem Wetherall of Amateur Hour as, "reverb drenched vocals and industrial strength percussion." Castricum identified her influences as interactions between electronic and shoe gaze styles and cites the artists, Depeche Mode, New Order, My Bloody Valentine, Curve and both Detroit techno and Belgian New Beat genres. 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 Castricum 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 as Simona Kapitolina and Fluorescent and was a member of bands Ana Nicole and Trans Pixies. She was the founder of the Melbourne queer record label, Girls Who Smoke Poke, which ran a club night, The Shock of the New.
Writing and advocacy
Simona Castricum, has contributed articles to publications Vice Magazine, i-D and Thump, writing on visibility and access for queer and transgender performers. She 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 panellist advocating for greater representation and equity in music and performance for gender nonconforming artists.
