kate butler / dj softskills

A writer and DJ in Dublin since the 1990s, dj softskills has a monthly show on Dublin Digital Radio (ddr), inspired by rave culture, community clubbing and the disorientating futurism of dance music.  

In 2026, Kate produced Control, a radio documentary series for Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTÉ/2FM, about women’s work in the recording studio.    

Kate's work is concerned with societal barriers to technology for creative purposes, particularly for women and other marginalised groups. Since 2017, she has been developing Atomic, a programme which teaches girls and marginalised children how to DJ and gives young people access to broadcasting on ddr. 

 Working across the visual arts, print and film, in 2021 Kate was one of the selectors of the Woman in the Machine exhibition at Carlow's VISUAL gallery. That same year, she co-curated Utopia: The Chill Out Room as a Radical Space in the National Concert Hall.

In 2022, at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), she co-programmed, with Ashley Chadamoyo Makombe, For What You Dream Of: Talks, Dance Rhythms and Afro-future Imaginaries. For Brigit Festival 2022, Kate conceived and produced a short film, Sonic Cyborgs: FemTech ‘n theStudio, directed by Eavan Aiken. That year, Kate also helped to develop Viva Dean’s Synthesize_Her_, a feminist sound-technology project. 

 In 2023, Kate co-edited, with Roo Honeychild, Mesh Net, a publication about social dance in Ireland. For Culture Night in 2024 and 2025, she curated and presented events for the Galway Arts Centre - Wanna See You Werk and The Outside Voice.

September 2026