People:
- Brian Boigon (author)
- Brian Boigon (archive creator)
Title:
Brian Boigon fonds
Form:
archives
Level of archival description:
Fonds
Extent and medium:
- 19402 digital files (1.93 GB)
493 photographic materials
Approximately 386 reprographic copies
Approximately 55 drawings
39 audio cassettes
36 VHSs
31 ephemera
11 serials
9 artefacts
9 SyQuest disks
5 Microcassettes
5 3.5 inch floppy disks
4 Betacams
4 sketchbooks
4 DATs
3 books
3 Zip disks
2 Video8s
1 Hi8s
1 MiniDVs
1 notebooks
0.68 l.m. of textual records
Scope and content:
The Brian Boigon fonds, 1981-2010, documents the varied creative and professional projects of artist and design theorist, Brian Boigon. Material in the fonds mainly consists of planning material for the multidisciplinary symposium series Culture Lab, that took place in Toronto from 1991-1993. This project is also documented in the form of audiovisual recordings of the symposiums and related events, press, and participant essays.
The fonds also consists of material relating to two, often intertwined, projects: the Cartoon Regulators and Spillville. The Cartoon Regulators was an ongoing theoretical project investigating cartoon movement in cyberspace while Spillville was the commercial iteration in the form of a children’s television show. Material associated with these projects mainly includes research and sketches. It was decided that each project should be distinct series to respect the original order of the donor. There is minimal born-digital material for the Cartoon Regulators mainly consisting of administration files and academic course planning material for a course taught by Boigon at the University of Toronto.
The bulk of the born-digital material in the fonds is associated with Boigon’s website design and media production company, Roller Coaster Studios. This material includes proposals, marketing plans, and screenshots of websites. A small component of the fonds covers Boigon’s writing and research activities including his involvement with Tokyo-based think tank Urban Design Research Inc. These materials are all born-digital.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements:
Original audiovisual materials require specialized equipment for playback and are not available for consultation.
Arrangement:
In 2024, Nina Patterson then arranged material into five series:
Series AP188.S1: Culture Lab
Series AP188.S2: The Cartoon Regulators
Series AP188.S3: Spillville
Series AP188.S4: Roller Coaster Studios
Series AP188.S5: Writing and research
For the digital component of the archive, digital carriers were described as discrete groups and arranged into the appropriate series. In one instance, folders on a carrier were arranged into different series. Within these folders, material has not been rearranged. Physical material has likewise been kept in their original groupings.
Biographical notes:
Brian Boigon was born on August 14th, 1955 in Toronto, Canada. He studied at the Ontario College of Art (now known as OCADU) from 1973-1976. He went on to receive a Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Toronto in 1980. Between 1985 and 1996, Boigon was a Professor of Digital Design in the School of Architecture at the University of Toronto.
Between 1991-1994, Boigon hosted a series of multidisciplinary symposiums called Culture Labs at Toronto nightclub, the Rivoli. Speakers consisted of architects, professors, cultural theorists, and artists.
Boigon sat on the editorial board of ANY Magazine from 1993–2000. Boigon was the New Media Foreign Research correspondent for North America with the Japanese thinktank Urban Design Research Inc. between 1993 and 1995 [1]. In 1995, Boigon served as a design consultant for the Michael Jackson website: HISTory. Boigon was the head of the New Media Centre at the Art Gallery of Ontario between 1996 and 1998.
In 2002, Boigon became an Associate Professor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto where he also was the Founding Director of the Inner Outer Space Lab [2]. Boigon has given lectures at Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton Universities. He is the author of several books including The Interopera Reader, We Have Impact, and Speed Reading Tokyo.
[1] Cooper, D. (1994, December 1). Toon Town. Wired. https://www.wired.com/1994/12/boigon/
[2] bio - Brian Boigon. (n.d.). https://cargocollective.com/brianboigon/bio-1
Conditions governing access:
- Digital material can only be accessed on-site. Access to digitized audiovisual materials is available by contacting Reference at ref@cca.qc.ca. Access by appointment only.
Conditions governing reproduction:
- For copyright information or permission to reproduce material from the fonds, please contact the CCA (reproductions@cca.qc.ca).
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer:
- Gift of Brian Boigon on 9 October 2015.
Custodial history:
- The archives of Brian Boigon were stored at Boigon's studio in Toronto and packed by the donor until their transfer to the CCA in 2015.
Archivist's note:
- In 2016, Pamela Casey created an inventory, conducted background research, and separated digital material for the fonds. The fonds was processed and described by Nina Patterson in 2024-2025. This processing project was partially funded by a donation from the CCA fundraising Soirée in 2024.
Credit line:
When citing the collection as a whole, use the citation: Brian Boigon fonds, Collection Centre Canadien d’Architecture/Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal. When citing specific collection material, please refer to the object’s specific credit line.
General note:
- Certain digital carriers in the fonds were unable to be disk imaged. They were kept in the event that further digital preservation activities could occur in the future. They are not available for consultation. Please contact Reference for further information.
