Simona Castricum

Simona is raising funds for travel and accomodation costs to perform at the upcoming Architecture & Feminisms AHRA Conference in Stockholm in November.

'When Program Is the Enemy Of Function' 

Architecture & Feminisms: Ecologies/Economies/Technologies
AHRA (Architectural Humanities Research Association)
Royal Institute of Technology
Stockholm, Sweden November 2016

Simona will present a twenty minute musical provocation that critiques the program and nature of architectural space with reference to the city; how it facilitates relationships of violence through sexuality, the body and power.

There will be two performances followed by a Q&A session over the three day conference. The multidisciplinary piece combines drumming, vocals and electronic sequencing with typography, projections, lasers and atmospherics. It is set in a black box photography studio in the Architecture Faculty on the Royal Institute of Technology campus in Stockholm.

“A lot of my music is about how traditional gender binaries cause displacement and isolation. This presents a unique type of violence framed by patriarchy and cisnormativity we need to unpack. Architecture - the city - can be complicit in that violence in the way space is programmed to uphold binary notions of gender.

'Program is the Enemy Of Function’ asks some abstract questions of architecture, while musically provoking an emotional response. It reveals fears, presents solutions and uncovers triumphs in the ways transgender, intersex and non-binary people adapt and survive in spaces we often feel unsafe in.

It's so important transgender people are platformed in international discussions on how architecture recognises diversity of gender identity in space and practice.” - Simona Castricum

Simona Castricum is a solo musician, DJ and producer releasing through Melbourne queer feminist label LISTEN Records.

She is a part-time tutor in architectural practice at the University of Melbourne School of Design and is a freelance music and culture writer.

Project/Production Cost

Accommodation - 7 Nights Stockholm: Allowance $2,000

Flights - Melbourne > Stockholm Allowance: $2,000

AV Technician: Allowance $200

Instrument & Backline - Transportation Allowance: $300

Target:  $4,500

There are certain safety issues I have to consider with flights and accomodation, so the allowances I have targeted are not in the budget range. I'm also travelling alone with instruments so I have to make allowance for extra baggage.