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Arboretum
For over twenty-five years, David Byrne has focused his unique genius upon forms as diverse as disco, architectural photography, and PowerPoint. Now he presents what may be his most personal work to date, a collection of drawings and diagrams mapping the strange corners of his mental landscape. It's an eclectic blend of faux science, automatic writing, satire, and an attempt to find connections where none were thought to exist—-a sort of self-therapy, allowing the hand to say what the voice cannot. Irrational logic, it's sometimes called. It's the application of logical scientific rigor and form to basically irrational premises. To proceed, carefully and deliberately, from nonsense, with a straight face, often arriving at a new kind of sense. The world keeps opening up, unfolding, and just when we expect it to be closed--to be a sealed, sensible box--it shows us something completely surprising.
Byrne's enigmatic, enchanting collection teaches us that there is absolutely no reason to discount anything, of any type, anywhere.
Byrne's enigmatic, enchanting collection teaches us that there is absolutely no reason to discount anything, of any type, anywhere.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published August 25, 2006
20 people are currently reading
1116 people want to read
About the author
David Byrne
122 books860 followersA cofounder of the musical group Talking Heads, David Byrne has also released several solo albums in addition to collaborating with such noted artists as Twyla Tharp, Robert Wilson, and Brian Eno. His art includes photography and installation works and has been published in five books. He lives in New York and he recently added some new bike racks of his own design around town, thanks to the Department of Transportation.
Photo © Catalina Kulczar-Marin
Photo © Catalina Kulczar-Marin
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
February 6, 2021
I really enjoyed this means of presenting information. David is clearly an intelligent guy who has interest in a lot of various facets of anthropology and philosophy. I feel like some of these diagrams were not the most effective means of presenting the information he was trying to convey, but then again it's a subjective art and I can definitely appreciate that. Some of the diagrams were just impossible to interpret but thats the fun of it I think. I would love to start my own collection of diagrams like this!
September 15, 2013
I love looking at things in new ways.
January 20, 2021
Reflections and lessons learned:
“...we have a built in urge to make sense of the world, to presume cause and effect and to endorse and internalise the categories that we have inherited”
So glad that I swapped reading this illustrated text from ebook to print as, for me, it deserved a physical interaction and the book was as beautiful as I’d hoped for. The tactile but smooth cover, the heavy paper, the finish to the pencil lines that thankfully looks mostly unedited (including the erased and redrawn words and lines), the traditional approach of a contents and introduction, with the questions asked of so many elements. Each of the diagrams as a considered thought flow - do we read them ground up or bottom down, left to right? Does it matter? I’m also so glad that the short single paragraph descriptions were listed separately, and that each title was given its own page to allow every entry to be its own entity without incursion. A total representation of the dichotomy that I often feel in life - to organise and to make sense, but then also, to quote another Scottish admired musician, the need to rip it up and start again. I hope for this to become a much loved family reference book and adore that these types of books exist for provoking thought.
“Categories are a prison that condemns us to see things and each other in particular ways”
“...we have a built in urge to make sense of the world, to presume cause and effect and to endorse and internalise the categories that we have inherited”
So glad that I swapped reading this illustrated text from ebook to print as, for me, it deserved a physical interaction and the book was as beautiful as I’d hoped for. The tactile but smooth cover, the heavy paper, the finish to the pencil lines that thankfully looks mostly unedited (including the erased and redrawn words and lines), the traditional approach of a contents and introduction, with the questions asked of so many elements. Each of the diagrams as a considered thought flow - do we read them ground up or bottom down, left to right? Does it matter? I’m also so glad that the short single paragraph descriptions were listed separately, and that each title was given its own page to allow every entry to be its own entity without incursion. A total representation of the dichotomy that I often feel in life - to organise and to make sense, but then also, to quote another Scottish admired musician, the need to rip it up and start again. I hope for this to become a much loved family reference book and adore that these types of books exist for provoking thought.
“Categories are a prison that condemns us to see things and each other in particular ways”
October 5, 2021
Okay, this was a bonkers read. I received this through a mystery box, and I honestly have some extremely conflicting thoughts. This is strange, there’s no other way to put it. It covers a lot of ground, with topics like sex, Freud, science, poop, Buddhism, and capitalism popping up several times. Sometimes it made me think about a topic in a fresh way, sometimes it made me laugh, sometimes it made absolutely no sense to me.
My favourite thing about this was how it ignited some funny and interesting conversations, because this is a book I wanted to share, I wanted to get other’s thoughts on these weird diagrams.
My least favourite thing about this was diagram 12 called One World, which featured nothing but racial slurs. Some diagrams have a short explanation to provide insight or context, but this one did not. As so much of this book was intentional and subversive, I can only hope this diagram had some larger point, but if it did, it went way over my head. So instead, I’m left feeling pretty damn uncomfortable.
Overall, I actually grew to like this book the more time I spent with it almost in spite of myself, and I enjoyed the conversations it sparked. Plenty of the diagrams didn’t do much for me though and, as mentioned, #12 is concerning. It is unique, almost some kind of curiously that I got a lot more from it than I was expecting to.
Tldr; half of this is nonsensical, self-indulgent bullshit, one page is racist (?), and the rest were a mix of insightful, strange, challenging and funny.
My favourite thing about this was how it ignited some funny and interesting conversations, because this is a book I wanted to share, I wanted to get other’s thoughts on these weird diagrams.
My least favourite thing about this was diagram 12 called One World, which featured nothing but racial slurs. Some diagrams have a short explanation to provide insight or context, but this one did not. As so much of this book was intentional and subversive, I can only hope this diagram had some larger point, but if it did, it went way over my head. So instead, I’m left feeling pretty damn uncomfortable.
Overall, I actually grew to like this book the more time I spent with it almost in spite of myself, and I enjoyed the conversations it sparked. Plenty of the diagrams didn’t do much for me though and, as mentioned, #12 is concerning. It is unique, almost some kind of curiously that I got a lot more from it than I was expecting to.
Tldr; half of this is nonsensical, self-indulgent bullshit, one page is racist (?), and the rest were a mix of insightful, strange, challenging and funny.
September 10, 2007
diagrams + poetry = surreal art. Really lovely book.
December 5, 2022
Great coffee table book for David Byrne fans. This is a collection of hand-drawn diagrams tackling complex topics in an attempt to make sense out of nonsense. Some of my favorites were on “Psychosexual Clouds” and “Imaginary Social Relationships.”
Do I think it’s Byrne’s best work? No. Especially since I just happened to watch his 1986 film, True Stories, the day before reading this. I highly recommend that stunning movie. This book, however, I could take or leave.
Do I think it’s Byrne’s best work? No. Especially since I just happened to watch his 1986 film, True Stories, the day before reading this. I highly recommend that stunning movie. This book, however, I could take or leave.
April 28, 2020
Fantastically odd
Economics, you see, has become a spiritual science
Economics, you see, has become a spiritual science
August 15, 2024
Algo aburrido, la verdad, los diagramas están curiosos, pero hay mucha información que pues… preferiría no haber leído, cosas innecesarias de la vida del autor. Eso si, la edición de sextopiso, ufff, está muy bonito, la forma en la que está organizado, si me preguntan, le pondría 4 estrellas a la edición.
December 27, 2015
Quite a strange and funny little book of lists and diagrams. As he does with his music, Byrne mixes the commonplace with the philosophical. Changed my hairstyle so many times/ I don't know what I look like.
November 14, 2021
If it hadn't been a library book, I would have seriously considered Byrne-ing it...
September 16, 2022
A graduate of RISD, David Byrne, while well known as a musician, is also a visual artist. "Arboretum" is a 2006 book of drawings by Byrne, exploring patterns and processes explored by his unique mind. These observations branch and root into other thoughts, creating bushes and trees of words and ideas that many could probably relate with. Arboretum is concise and fascinating as a thought experiment (or, to Byrne, as a therapeutic exercise).
The drawings are sparse and conceptual, so many people could find them boring if they don't agree with or understand what Byrne is attempting. Once, during a presentation, I asked somebody what they thought the negative space in the drawings represented. They quickly pinned, "it represents how little I respect them." But to those who want to find ways to connect the words and phrases on display, Arboretum is a fun and enlightening thought experiment.
The drawings are sparse and conceptual, so many people could find them boring if they don't agree with or understand what Byrne is attempting. Once, during a presentation, I asked somebody what they thought the negative space in the drawings represented. They quickly pinned, "it represents how little I respect them." But to those who want to find ways to connect the words and phrases on display, Arboretum is a fun and enlightening thought experiment.
February 28, 2022
Tree-based illustrations (mental maps) of different, sometimes bizarre connections, though not outwardly apparent, that exist between realms of thought; resembling the dendritic branches of neural connections and rooted in subjects/topics that are human at their core. The best sort of read for the mornings with your cup of coffee, offering empty spaces on the page to introspect and analyze your own connections, to process your thoughts, behaviors, and their roots. How far do they span? How thick or thin are they? Where to they come from? Where do they go?
December 30, 2020
I'm not sure if "read" is quite the right word for a book that is so reliant on the visual as this is, but this is a fascinating, odd, and beautiful book that sits at the nexus of philosophy, visual art, and taxonomy. Good for dipping in and out of, but read the text at the back that describes the underpinnings.
February 15, 2021
La neta no puedo no pensar que Byrne es un increíble autor.
Read
January 22, 2022Pretty!
November 22, 2023
Amo la mente de este caballero
Read
September 9, 2024Byrne es, sí, un gran músico. Aquí crea mapas mentales. Algunos funcionan. Otros no.
December 25, 2024
It's nice to have a peek under the hood at the inner workings of a genius mind.
November 24, 2021
Arboretum fue publicado en inglés en 2006.
Fascina ver como David Byrne, a través de dibujos / mapas mentales, hace que conexiones inimaginables se vuelvan familiares. Muy buenos los textos de referencia que acompañan a varios dibujos.
El libro fue editado en español en 2020.
Fascina ver como David Byrne, a través de dibujos / mapas mentales, hace que conexiones inimaginables se vuelvan familiares. Muy buenos los textos de referencia que acompañan a varios dibujos.
El libro fue editado en español en 2020.
January 16, 2023
Very interesting concept and beautiful but simplistic drawings. I think sometimes the accessibility of the concepts and ideas is lost in the theatricality of it all. It was kind of like poetry in a lot of regards.
However I am also docking points because I am not sure even promoting the idea of world piece is worth saying the 'n' word.
5/10
However I am also docking points because I am not sure even promoting the idea of world piece is worth saying the 'n' word.
5/10
December 8, 2008
David Byrne's analyzation of everyday life is hilariously absurd and also thought provoking. I love his generalizing, objectifying, overlaping, and metaphorizing of all activities, things, and feelings involved with the human experience. Athough I enjoyed the drawings, I don't think I would have made much sense of them or liked them as much without the descriptions in the back of the book. It's mostly ridiculous, but now and then he really makes a convincing point that all we are and believe in IS mostly ridiculous.
June 8, 2009
Also given to me for Christmas last year by my lady (they must have been having a 2 for 1 sale at Byrne-mart). A big essentially unedited sketchbook of all sorts of free associative hierarchies and other such wacky thoughts floating around Byrne's head (smudge marks included). Fun to flip through and chuckle in moderation, fits nicely on any coffee table.
February 27, 2007
Delightfully strange.
August 14, 2007
Beautiful tiny drawings of trees and charts and words made with one of those yellow mechanical pencils you sharpen by turning the tip. I have no idea why I find it so compelling.
September 6, 2007
Weird great stuff. Flow charts of human behavor shape like huge root and plant systems.
October 14, 2007
I am a huge fun of mind mapping and what a woot to see Daviid Byrnes take on it
January 10, 2008
One day I hope to be famous enough so my simple doodles can fetch lots of money in pretty journal form.
June 25, 2008
Weirdly compelling artwork / poetry. Hard to define, but it seems that someone just stuck David Byrne in a room with a pencil and paper and said "Go".
July 20, 2009
Pencil tree diagram sketches
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews