Jérôme Nika (PhD)
Electronic musician & Researcher at Ircam

Portrait in “Le Monde” by Pierre Gervasoni

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As a researcher at Ircam Centre Pompidou in Paris (ISMM STMS lab), Jérôme Nika focuses on the design of interactions with generative sound processes. His research aims to empower artists through highly customizable tools that adapt to individual creative practices. It is grounded in a practice-oriented design approach, in which users actively shape both the tools and their artistic outcomes, enabling deeply personalized music creation through machine teaching. Conducted in close collaboration with expert musicians, this work spans from conceptual modeling to the development and deployment of large-scale artistic projects, following an action research methodology. Since 2026, he has been coordinating the ANR project OpenTuning: Creative Individuation through the Interaction Design of Generative Musical Systems.

Jérôme Nika is involved in numerous musical productions and artistic collaborations as an electronic musician and sound artist, particularly in improvised music (Steve Lehman, Orchestre National de Jazz, Bernard Lubat, Benoît Delbecq, Rémi Fox), contemporary music (Pascal Dusapin, Alexandros Markeas, Ensemble Modern, Marta Gentilucci), electronic music (Fabrizio Rat), and contemporary art (Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains). Notable examples include the creation of the generative electronics for Ex Machina, a project by the French National Jazz Orchestra and Steve Lehman, premiered at Maison de la Radio in 2022 and later released on Pi Recordings, and the collective creation Electro Odyssée Memoria, presented at Ircam Centre Pompidou in 2026.