Digital Workshops
The Cultural Outreach Department offers on-site and off-site digital workshops for children and teens, students, and music lovers alike. The aim of these workshops is to enable the younger generation to test innovation, and to introduce them to the main areas of scientific and technological research on sound, conducted in IRCAM's laboratories and studios.
These workshops are aimed primarily at the general public (schoolchildren and individuals, children, teenagers, young adults, and accompanying parents).
These are concrete initiatives designed to integrate and decode technological and cultural changes in society, to shed light on the union of creativity and automation, and to re-appropriate the human-machine relationship.
Initiate yourself to sound creation!
Since 2023, IRCAM has been putting together workshops to introduce students to digital technology and sound. These workshops are under development and will be available for booking from September 2025 for classes or school groups in the Paris region. More information at action.culturelle (@) ircam.fr.
Scénari-sons | Ages 8–12
What if Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather turned into a comedy, and La La Land became a thriller? A film’s score gives images their meaning and shapes our perception, often more than we imagine. By discovering and remixing iconic scenes from cinema history, come and experiment with the powerful bond that unites images, music, and emotions.
With simplified sound design and editing tools, this workshop reveals the hidden side of film sound creation and lets you create your own soundtracks.
Lutherie numérique (Digital Instrument Making) | Ages 8–12
Try your hand at becoming an instrument maker by prototyping an improbable musical invention. This workshop invites children to imagine and build their own unusual instruments, guided by creativity and play! Over the course of two hours, construct your unique instrument using everyday objects, and bring it to life thanks to an ingenious electronic setup.
1001 Voices – Make a Bestiorobot | Ages 7-12
Who is the Bestio-Robot?! How many heads does he have? What's his favorite ice cream flavor? What does his voice sound like? And above all, how does he talk? After all, it's only a robot...
This workshop explores the world of machines that talk and make us talk. From the good old microphone to the latest artificial intelligence technologies, children will be invited to give their voices and invent their Bestio-Robot through writing and listening games, without notebooks or pens!
Words and Sounds | Ages 13-17
This workshop offers an introduction to the profession of sound designer: learning how to analyze sounds to create the vocal identity of a character. Composing music to heighten suspense in the cinema, illustrating a character in a video game, creating the sounds of a dishwasher or an electric car, guiding the visually impaired along a route... sound design is now present everywhere as part of our daily lives. Creating meaningful sounds means knowing how to listen carefully to them and you can do it without any musical training! This workshop offers sound specialists and non-specialists alike the chance to work together on characterizing the sound of a character and then to create these real sounds using accessible software.
The workshop is designed and run by a facilitator specialized in sound design.
Storytelling with Sound and Movement | Ages 4-8
CoMo-education is a mobile application that lets children aged 4 and over tell stories with sound and movement. Children are invited to take part in a fun, interactive, and shared experience based on listening, imagination, and body awareness. The stories are brought to life by various soundscapes generated directly by the participants' gestures. The CoMo-education project is the result of collaboration between the Interaction sound music movement team at IRCAM-STMS and the association Premiers cris.
Photo: Marion Voillot, docteure en sciences cognitives et designer avec des enfants.
The workshops 1001 Voices – Bestiorobot, Des mots et des sons (Words and Sounds), and Histoires en sons et en mouvements (Telling Stories in Sound and Movement) are made possible thanks to the patronage of Madame Aline Foriel Destezet.
SeineLab
Since February 2023, IRCAM and La Seine Musicale have teamed up for three years to offer a hands-on approach to the discovery of digital tools and to raise awareness of sound creation; two important societal issues for today's children.
Committed to innovative cultural and social development alongside the Hauts-de-Seine department and the Seine Musicale, IRCAM shares the ambition of making high-quality culture accessible to all. Together with the Cube, IRCAM is an active partner in the establishment of SeineLab, which offers a variety of workshops on sound and digital technology.
SeineLab is a venue to discover emerging artists and works in progress. In addition, SeineLab and its partners organize workshops for young people ( from the age of 6 ) and families on artificial intelligence, sound processing, and sound design. The public will be able to create the sound identity of a character or an object, explore the world of machines by inventing a Bestio-robot, build an unexpected musical instrument, learn about binaural production to create a 3D environment, an immersive soundscape, or a musical piece.
L'atelier « Lutherie numérique », l'atelier « Field recording - Chasseurs de sons » et l'atelier « Des mots et des sons » © Gwendal Le Flem
Partner Venues 2025–2026
Centre des Arts, Enghien-les-Bains
Scénari-sons: Wednesday, February 4, 2026
Des mots et des sons: Wednesday, May 27, 2026
Le Cube, Garges-lès-Gonesse
IRCAM and Le Cube Garges are partners for the Scénari-sons workshops —see their program for details.
Scénari-sons: Thursday 23 & Friday 24 October 2025; Thursday 26 & Friday 27 February 2026; Wednesday 29 & Thursday 30 April 2025; Thursday 9 & Friday 10 July 2026
Musée du Jouet, Poissy
Lutherie numérique: October 22, 2025
Le Temps Machine, Tours
Histoires en sons et en mouvements and Bestiorobot: November 5, 2025
Seinelab
Throughout the year at La Seine Musicale, Boulogne-Billancourt (see tab above)
In Schools
Our team travels across the Paris region to run workshops directly in classrooms.
For more information, contact: action.culturelle (@) ircam.fr