• Admissions Promo 2026
  9 February to 6 April : online enrolment (free of charge)
  27 to 29 May : video interviews with the selection panels

Each class has a maximum of 8 students and is to open to international students.
Tuition fees are €520 per year, plus €105 for the CVEC (student contribution to university facilities) and €27 for health insurance. Students receiving grants are exempt from tuition fees and the CVEC.

Présentation

The DNSEP (Master degree) Art ‘Creation in a Digital Environment’ is based on a comprehensive approach to digital arts and their ecology that is theoretical, practical, experimental and applied.
Working closely with the professional sector, the curriculum explores a variety of artistic spaces (virtual, sound and performance environments, in situ installations, etc.) while placing them in a historical perspective.
Designed with a versatile and professional approach, the programme prepares students for a wide range of careers, from the creation and design of works to production or mediation in the digital field.

Work-study programme

The first year of the Master’s programme is very intensive and takes place entirely at ésam Caen/Cherbourg. The second year is organised on a work-study basis : between September 1 and August 31, students complete 65% of their training in a company (ie : 33 weeks) and 35% at ésam (ie : 14 weeks). They benefit from an employment contract and remuneration depending on their level of qualification and age.

Educational project

The fundamental principles that define this programme are based on several areas :<

A versatile, cross-disciplinary and professional approach.
The Master’s programme trains students in :

• the critical study of works ;
• the acquisition of technical skills related to creative projects (coding, 3D, sound, image, electronics, AI, etc.) ; ;
• the methodology, writing and implementation of an artistic project.

Digital ecology.
This is approached here both in terms of the study of the interactions of living beings with their environment and in its social and political dimensions. How can we create in an eco-responsible way with digital technologies ? How can we address the issue of the ‘Anthropocene’ in the production of works ?

The notion of space.
The educational programme is structured around the exploration of different types of space :

• simulated (VR, video games, etc.)
• <sound, online (open source code, permacomputing, etc.)
• <latent (AI) 
• <invested (in situ works, etc.)
• hybrid (from low-tech to creative code, analogue/digital interfacing, etc.).

Introduction to research
The teaching is based on the research-creation programme of the Laboratoire Modulaire,located in the same studio. This research laboratory hosts artists in residence and focuses on the concept of ‘spatialisation’ through two complementary axes : immersion on the one hand, and physical space and its digital representation on the other.

The relationship between arts, sciences and society.
The Master’s programme aims to understand, through creation, how technologies influence the development of contemporary artistic devices and forms. The programme also focuses on the technologies deployed in students’ projects through productive collaborations with scientists and, downstream, by questioning the strategies for disseminating and mediating these hybrid works.

A unique and autonomous artistic network.
The programme draws on a network developed over more than 20 years, which now constitutes a very rich ecosystem, not only in terms of production and dissemination, but also in terms of the organisation of internationally recognised events..

Team and teaching

The teaching team provides a range of courses that support and nurture the completion of the diploma project at the end of the M2. The knowledge acquired in the first year is complemented by the acquisition of skills in the second year as part of a work-study programme. This allows students to affirm their professional project and gain direct, concrete experience of the realities of the sector..

Simulated spaces (3D, VR, etc.)
The representation of three-dimensional forms plays an important role in the digital environment and is present in all stages of the contemporary creative process, from project development to creation.
Mastery of digital 3D capture and design tools enables the creation of complete, autonomous environments such as animated films or interactive devices based on the principle of video games. The results can also be incorporated into more complex environments such as installations or combined with traditional techniques (engraving, ceramics, wood, etc.).
The course will provide an overview of digital uses, from creation to simulation and prototyping, through the exploration of imaginary, fictional or simulated landscapes.

• Christophe Bouder (teacher, member of the Laboratoire Modulaire) teaches 3B modelling and coding. His personal work takes the form of photographs, drawings, installations, and technological objects..

Sound spaces, sound journeys, sound spatialisation, field recording, sonification
Digital audio allows sounds to be recorded with great precision and analysed using specialised software that visualises, isolates and studies their characteristics, whether audible or not (frequency, amplitude, timbre). It also offers the possibility of faithfully reproducing these sounds or transforming them through editing, effects or synthesis. Through spatialisation and multi-channel broadcasting, it can create immersive sound environments. Current tools make it possible to connect different data sources, generate audio in real time, and even create sound from images, data or physical signals, opening up new creative and analytical possibilities.

• Nicolas Germain (teacher, member of the Laboratoire Modulaire) works on immersive sound spaces and non-realistic spatialisation in octophony for modular synthesizers.

Networked spaces and latent spaces(programming, open source logic, cultural studies in the digital field)
Since the emergence of social media, networked spaces have played a decisive role in our society : they structure our modes of social organisation, shape our means of communication, regulate our access to information and enable a form of globalised surveillance.
Understanding the logic, techniques and infrastructure that make up these networks allows us to address not only the artistic dimension of web languages and protocols, but also the political issues related to the implementation of algorithmic logic – from those that rank the results of a simple Google search to those that enable the generation of images or text.
This field of study thus offers a comprehensive view of contemporary uses of digital technology : from critical analysis to aesthetic experimentation, including mastery of data processing and circulation mechanisms.

• Bérénice Serra (lecturer-researcher, member of the Laboratoire Modulaire) develops artistic and theoretical work on the publication of content in the digital age..

Invested spaces (in situ works, situated works)
Invested spaces allow us to understand how technologies transform our experience of place, image and body, revealing the material, architectural and sensory dimensions of digital environments. In the wake of the post-internet — which has revealed the internet as a material, social and architectural environment, permeating exhibition spaces as much as our behaviour — invested spaces shift aesthetic issues towards a situated understanding of technical devices. They invite us to consider these devices not as immaterial surfaces, but as active structures that shape our modes of attention, our gestures and our experience of space.

• Laura Gozlan (teacher) is an artist trained in scenography and moving image. She designs devices where the image interacts with sculptural elements, creating perceptual spaces that shift our relationship to the body, narrative and technologies.

Knowledge of the professional environment (project design, management and monitoring
This module provides students with a solid understanding of the professional digital creation sector through mastery of the construction of artistic portfolios, the challenges of production and distribution, and the modes of collaboration, often collective, specific to these practices..
Drawing on ésam’s partnerships – notably the international festival ]interstice[, the regional centre for artistic creation in the digital environment (led by Oblique/s and Station Mir), the national network HACNUM and international collaborations such as Interfaculty in the Hague – the teaching approach encourages practical immersion in a variety of professional contexts. Students attend introductory research seminars, study days and lecture series, and benefit from the presence of artists in residence at the Laboratoire Modulaire.

• David Dronet (teacher-member of the Laboratoire Modulaire) has been director of Station Mir since 1995 and of the interstice festival, a gathering of the unclassifiable, since 2006, and is co-founder of HACNUM and Oblique/s. He teaches the methodology of complex projects..

Hybrid spaces (creative coding and electronics, analogue/digital interfacing)
Hybrid Spaces offers a practical overview of electronic circuit design and the use of microcontrollers through code. The technical modules aim to guide these practices towards a low-tech and economical approach, drawing on resources available online and simple components such as transistors, resistors, etc. Learning to identify reliable sources, acquiring a methodology for deciphering engineering details for creative purposes, discovering soldering and prototyping : these are all steps that will provide the keys to understanding necessary for the development of a culture through practice and autonomy in the face of these electronic devices, which are often invisible in our everyday lives but very often drive artistic projects.

• Alexis Choplain (technician), is a multidisciplinary artist who graduated in 2018 from the École Supérieure des Arts Visuels in Mons, Belgium, in the IDM© section. He now works mainly with sound and analogue electronics, building his own devices.
• Arnaud Gabard (technician) is an entrepreneur in electronic and software engineering, 3D printing and lightweight mechanical design. He supports students and artists alike in their technological challenges..

Professional integration

• Artists/authors (installations, performances, online projects, VR and XR projects, algorithmic works, etc.)
• Design and management of projects and events
• Executive production of hybrid projects
• Management of event teams, cultural venues and digital arts festivals
• Cultural mediation in the field of digital arts
• Performing arts professions (set design, etc.)
• Further doctoral studies, participation in research-creation projects, etc.
• Teaching
• Technical management.

Contact

Registrar’s office : scolarite@esam-c2.fr
Internship department : stage@esam-c2.fr
By telephone on +33 2 14 37 25 12 and +33 2 14 37 25 13
Fatima El Kaddoumi, Shirley Herbreteau, Nahomie Labussière (and Juliette Louis-Philippe).
By appointment in person from Tuesday to Thursday, only after requesting an appointment by email.