About

Jérôme Nika  is a researcher and an electronic musician specialised in interactive technologies for music creation. He graduated from the French Grandes Écoles Télécom ParisTech and ENSTA ParisTech in 2012. In addition, he studied acoustics, signal processing and computer science applied to music (ATIAM Master, Sorbonne Université) and composition. He specialised in the applications of computer science and signal processing to digital creation and music through a PhD at Ircam (Young Researcher Prize in Science and Music, 2015; Young Researcher Prize awarded by the French Association of Computer Music, 2016), and then as a postdoctoral researcher.
Between 2018 and 2020, he works as a freelance computer music designer / musician and is invited researcher at Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains. Since 2020, he is a permanent researcher at Ircam, and is involved in numerous artistic productions.

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 conceives and develops generative technologies in close collaboration with expert improvisers, performers, and composers. These generative systems combine machine learning models, generative processes, and reactive listening modules (Dicy2, OM Dicy2, ImproteK, etc.). Since 2016, they have been featured in numerous artistic productions presented at leading international venues and festivals, including Roulette (Brooklyn, New York), the Onassis Center (Athens, Greece), the Ars Electronica Festival (Linz, Austria), Frankfurter Positionen (Frankfurt, Germany), the Annenberg Center (Philadelphia, USA), the Bimhuis (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), the French Embassy (Washington, DC, USA), Studio 104 at Maison de la Radio, the Grande Salle of the Centre Pompidou, the Collège de France, Le Centquatre (Paris, France), the Montreux Jazz Festival, and the Montreal Jazz Festival (Théâtre Plaza).

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.