​DEFRAG: Archive of Synthetic Dreams

​November 18–19, 2026 · The Permanent · Vancouver

​The archive remembers. The machine dreams. DEFRAG brings the fragments together.

​DEFRAG brings artists, researchers and audiences together through moving images, generative installations, live audiovisual performance and creative AI workshops.

​In computing, defragmentation gathers scattered pieces of data. Here, it becomes a way to think about cultural memory: images, bodies, sounds and histories broken apart and recombined through digital systems. What do we preserve, what do machines invent, and what emerges between the two?

​Presented by Ministry of Next, in collaboration with SFU’s Metacreation Lab and Internet Archive Canada, inside The Permanent—home to servers preserving the internet’s past.

​Exhibition + Screenings

​Explore synthetic environments, shifting identities and fragments of networked culture through:

• ​Dreamscape — Erica Lapadat-Janzen and Philippe Pasquier

• ​Ensemble — Arshia Sobhan and Philippe Pasquier

• ​SlowCore — Bingmiao Zheng and Philippe Pasquier

• ​Model of Me — Carla Gannis

• ​Am I the Machine? Am I the Home? — Carla Gannis, in collaboration with Cleveland Adams

• ​Petting Zoo: Epic Biblical — Lorna Mills

​November 18 — Workshops + Exhibition Preview

​An afternoon of shared experimentation with creative AI, alongside a preview of the exhibition.

​Workshop and demonstration topics include:

• ​AutoLume

• ​Kiln — model bending

• ​MIDI-GPT, with Paul Triana

• ​Fragmenta, with Misagh Azimi

​The evening includes a screening of Ways of Something, Episode 1, compiled by Lorna Mills with participating artists, alongside exhibition preview viewing.

​November 19 — Exhibition + Live Program

​6:00–11:00 p.m.

​An evening of exhibition viewing, conversation and live audiovisual performance, featuring:

• ​Carl Faia: Shelley’s Dream — Study I: A Strange Multiplicity of Sensations

• ​A collaborative audiovisual performance by Erica Lapadat-Janzen, Philippe Pasquier, Paul Triana and Misagh Azimi

• ​A techno set by Misagh Azimi

​Tickets

​All prices in Canadian dollars.

• ​Early bird: $25 per day / $40 two-day pass

• ​Regular: $30 per day / $50 two-day pass

• ​Supporter: $75 two-day pass, with an additional contribution toward artist fees and production

​Student and community discounts will be available.

​Location

​The Permanent
330 West Pender Street, Vancouver, BC

​For accessibility questions, contact studio@theministryofnext.com.

​Curated and produced by Erica Lapadat-Janzen / Ministry of Next.

​Developed with SFU’s Metacreation Lab and Internet Archive Canada, with support from the FCAT Knowledge Mobilization Activity Fund.