About

Jérôme Nika is a researcher and an electronic musician specialised in generative technologies for human-machine creative interactions. 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 designing interactions with generative sound processes, as well as on modeling, learning, and navigating “musical memory” models in creative contexts. His research aims to develop new creative practices based on symbolic abstraction, making it possible to interpret live electronics at the level of intention and to compose them at the level of narrative.

Designing systems for interactive sound synthesis means navigating the tension between immediate response and longer-term intention in human–computer interaction, while uncovering structure in sound as it unfolds in real time. This work is grounded in ongoing collaboration with expert musicians and extends from conceptual modeling to its realization in large-scale artistic projects.

Jérôme Nika conceives and develops generative technologies in interaction with expert improvisers, performers, and composers. These generative agents combine machine learning models and generative processes with reactive listening modules (Dicy2, OM-Dicy2, ImproteK,…)

Numerous artistic productions have used technologies resulting from this research since 2016 (Roulette, Brooklyn, New York; Onassis Center, Athens, Greece; Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, Austria; Frankfurter Positionen festival, Frankfurt; Annenberg Center, Philadelphia, USA; Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Netherlands; French embassy in Washington DC; Studio 104 de la Maison de la Radio, Grande salle du Centre Pompidou, Collège de France, LeCentquatre, Paris, France; Montreux Jazz festival; Theatre Plaza, Montreal Jazz Festival etc.). 

As an electronic musician and composer Jérôme Nika is involved in numerous musical productions and artistic collaborations, 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).