Simona Castricum
is a musician, architecture worker, and broadcaster based in Narrm [Melbourne].

Her work reimagines the relationships between bodies, space, and politics—exploring queerness, gender, and urban conditions.

She is a designer for D4T—Design for Trans and a broadcaster on 3RRR.

Music—

Simona Castricum fuses post-punk, dream-pop and synth-wave, mapping queer relationships inside utopian/dystopian urbanisms.

Emerging from Narrm’s underground scene in the late ’90s, she has received multiple Music Victoria Award nominations for Best Solo Artist. Her Panic/Desire and SINK albums were long-listed for the Australian Music Prize. SINK also earned a 2024 AIR Award nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Release.


Signing to Dinosaur City Records in 2023, Simona collaborates to release music independently through her studio, Trans-Brunswick Express.

As a duo with drummer Anetta Nevin (Dianas, Cars That Ate Paris), Simona drives guitar over synths and drum machines. She’s played Golden Plains, Dark Mofo, VIVID, Sydney World Pride, and Melbourne Music Week, supporting Peaches, Drab Majesty, Lydia Lunch, and !!!. Her music has been remixed by Aérea Negrot, Chiara Kickdrum, and Various Asses, while she has remixed for Courtney Barnett, Cong Josie, Pillow Pro, and Hyrda Fashion Week.


In 2017, she formed SaD with the late Daphne Camf. Opening for Moon Duo in 2020, they released Saturn Rules the Material World (2021), their lone epitaphic offering, which earned a Music Victoria Award nomination for Best Electronic Act.

Broadcasting—

Simona is a broadcaster on Narrm commmunity radio 3RRR, championing intergenerational, genre-bending underground and queer music for drive-time.

A former DJ, Simona launched The Shock of the New—a trans dance space dedicated to electronic music in the late 2000s. She has helped to establish trans musical communities in Narrm, playing techno, house, and new beat across the eras.

Through clubs and radio, Simona has been a DJ on 3PBS and played at Strawberry Fields, Pitch Renegades, Confide, Fantastic, Hugs & Kisses, Pleasure Planet, Bunker, Death Disco, Gaytimes, Trough, Abode, Meccanoid, and Q&A.

Architecture—

Simona is the design lead at D4T—Design for Trans, working in gendered spatial design, transfeminist methodologies, and design justice practice.



Simona challenges cisnormative paradigms, uncovering how architecture and urbanism shape trans experiences—and how trans people, in turn, reshape space itself.

With 25+ years in architecture, she has contributed to major civic and cultural spaces across Australia, working in leading design studios and speculative projects. In 2024, she received the inaugural Gender Equity & Diversity Prize from the Australian Institute of Architects (Vic Chapter).

Holding a PhD from the University of Melbourne, Simona was awarded the Chancellor’s Prize and John Grice Award for her thesis What If Safety Becomes Permanent: Architecture & Music as a Site of Transing. Her research explores trans-inclusive spaces, administrative violence, and queer urban morphologies. She continues her academic work at the University of Melbourne, focusing on disability research, urban planning, and trans studies.

Installation—

Simona’s installations explore the affective, tactile, and virtual conditions of transgender spatial production.

Her conceptual work has led to collaborations across exhibitions, installations, and performances, including Simply Irresistible (NGV Architecture Commission Design Competition), SINK (with Carla Zimbler, Arts House), WAYFINDING (with George Goodnow, Science Gallery), Who’s Afraid of Public Space? (with SIBLING, ACCA), and When Program is the Enemy of Function (Architecture Feminisms, AHRA/KTH Sweden)._
Images—
Portrait: Elliott Lauren / Live: Tristian Davies / SaD w Daphne Camf: Billie / Simply Irresistible w StudioBird / SINK w Carla Zimbler: Briony Jackson