About

Hello and welcome to Mindlybiz!

The mind is really an astonishing feat of nature! It is where complex mental content such as thoughts, memories and intentions are generated and stored; so, in a sense, it’s what allows us to have subjective experience (or consciousness).

I cannot pinpoint the exact moment I became fascinated with the human mind. I can tell you, however, that this fascination grew from those creative and mysterious works of art and entertainment that placed the (un)conscious mind at the center of their narrative.

An interesting parallel across these works, as it turned out, was that they all shared a certain mind-bending aspect that stimulated my curiosity to find out more.

So, for the past few years, I have been on a serious quest for a dedicated site that listed, reviewed and analyzed the narrative content of mind-bending works. After many years of searching, I decided to create one myself.

But Mindlybiz is much more than a review site. I’m a true believer that the arts and entertainment have the power not only to entertain but also to edify us.

Indeed, what really captivates me is the type of artistic creation – let it be a movie, book, song, painting or video game – that encourages me to dig deeper and think beyond what has been revealed to us.

You will notice that most works that are reviewed and analyzed here deal with the mysterious, and are often surrealistic in nature.

This is no coincidence.

Bizarre and surrealistic works undoubtedly give more latitude for interpretation because they often contain elements which meaning is unknown to the audience. Artists tend to let the audience interpret their artistic creation their own way – Mindlybiz is an attempt to dive into the artist’s mind.

Aim

At its heart, Mindlybiz has three clear objectives:

First, we aim to build a unique compilation of mind-bending works, and we will do our best to cover as many of these as possible.
Second, every article will include interesting information that will help you understand our analysis of the works.
Third, we hope to create a community with a genuine interest in types of work that address the (un)conscious mind in creative ways.

So, even if you find our interpretation/analysis of the work way off, we hope, at least, you will have learned something interesting (and, who knows, perhaps our articles may even inspire you to come up with an interpretation of your own).

Although we always aim for the most accurate content possible, we cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, particularly in fields that are outside of our expertise.

Nevertheless, we can assure you we will do our best to explain concepts clearly, without unnecessary technical jargon that often thwarts understanding.

We also hope that any inaccuracies will be spotted and duly corrected by you, wise readers, so don’t shy away from a good discussion in the comments and Forum/Q&A sections.

What is the origin of the name and logo?

We chose to name our website Mindlybiz, because we hope our site becomes a kind of a hub for mind-bending works related to the mind.

“Mindly” (def. of or relating to the mind) has a double meaning here. First, all creative works originate in the artist’s mind. Second, the narrative content of most works analysed in our site relate to the human mind in some way.

“biz” has also a double meaning. It’s the short form for business (in the sense of “matter” – matters of the mind), as well as the first three letters of the word “bizarre” – an adjective that is applicable, to a variable degree, to most of the content analysed in this website.

Mindly is also a homoiophone with mildly, so Mindlybiz kind of sounds like “mildly bizarre”.

The logo shows a brain with the letter m (from mindly) on a “page” of the brain, as well as the letter b (from biz) on another “page” of the brain.

The page curl is a metaphor for narrative (of the mind).

Our star rating system

For an evaluation of the quality of the work, we use the following star rating system:

By combining the Bizarrometer with our star-rating system, you can have an idea how we believe the artist was able to incorporate bizarre elements into the narrative of the work.

For example, a Bizarrometer of 10 with a star rating of 0.5 would probably suggest that the content was too strange for any meaningful analysis.

Bizarrometer

The Bizarrometer gauges how bizarre the narrative content (or “story”) of the work being reviewed is.

Obviously, “bizarreness” is assessed taking the type of work into consideration.

For example, the bizarreness of a song can be evaluated on the basis of its lyrics, melodic content and music video (if any), whereas the bizarreness of a painting will be assessed based on its visual elements and what they are depicting.

Here’s a description of each score in the Bizarrometer scale we use in mindlybiz:

0.5 – not weird at all – if any, the narrative might only contain one or two strange elements

1 – includes very few weird elements, which don’t impact the intelligibility of the narrative

1.5 – some weird elements here and there, with minimal impact on the intelligibility of the narrative

2 – a few weird elements, but narrative remains largely intelligible

2.5 – some weird elements that make parts of the narrative slightly strange

3 – a significant number of weird elements that make the narrative confusing

3.5 – a substantial number of weird elements, that make the narrative very confusing

4 – we entered the weird realm! The narrative is surreal, with few intelligible elements

4.5 – this is extremely bizarre – the narrative is so surreal that you are questioning what on earth is this all about!

5 – this is so bizarre that it blows your mind!

How is the site organised?

Mindlybiz is organised into five main sections: the Articles, Reviews, Rankings, Lists and the Forum sections.

Articles & Reviews

In the Reviews section, you will find the reviews of the works we have covered so far. We assign each work a star rating, which is meant to be a general indication of the quality of the work. Being a site that analyses mind-bending works, we also include a Bizarrometer score that indicates how bizarre we found the narrative of the work in question. For some reviews, we have also provided an interpretation of the work we are reviewing.

The Articles are essentially the reviews with the addition of a detailed explanation of some theory or general knowledge facts. These explanations are intended to be both educational and explicatory of the narrative content of the particular work being explained.

User comments, reviews and ratings

If you would like to comment on any of our posts (reviews, articles, knowledge, lists), we have set up a commenting section where you will be able to do so.

Feel free to write whatever you like (or dislike) about our posts. If you notice some inaccuracies, please let us know in the comment section as well, so that we can correct the post accordingly. The detailed interpretation and analysis included in each Article/Review will be written by us at Mindlybiz. However, our interpretation is purely subjective, and many other interpretations are equally valid.

So, feel free to write up whatever analysis/interpretation you prefer and think is more accurate. Any comment you post can be voted (thumbs-up only) and commented on by other users.

Lists and Rankings

In the Rankings section you will be able to sort all of our reviewed works based on several criteria (e.g., our review score, users’ review score, number of post likes, etc).

Forum

The forum is a space in which you can engage in more in-depth discussions of topics of your own choosing.

General

Announcements

Here we will inform you about forthcoming events, competitions, places of interest etc. as well as the latest articles we publish in Mindlybiz.

Bugs & Technical Issues

If you are experiencing issues navigating the website, or accessing your user account, please post a topic in this sub-forum.

Arts & Entertainment

As the name implies, this forum is meant for discussing works of art and entertainment. For example, if you would like to discuss the film “Dogville”, please start a topic in Arts & Entertainment → Movies; if you would rather discuss the song “Virus” by Haken, please start a topic in Arts & Entertainment → Music; and so on.

Knowledge Exchange

One of the main tenets of Mindlybiz is that there is always an opportunity for learning when being entertained.

All of our articles contain (hopefully) interesting educational information like scientific theories or general knowledge facts that aid explaining a particular work. With this forum, we hope that you also share your knowledge with us.

For example, did you read a scientific article of a topic around which a great story could be potentially conceived? Or maybe you just didn’t get a theory from one of our articles and would like others’ to help you understand it better. If so, please use this forum.

Your Projects

Are you working on a particular project for which you would like to get others’ opinion?

Perhaps you are having writer’s block and would welcome a bit of inspiration?

Or maybe you are not sure about the direction your movie script is going and are looking for advice?

Or perhaps you just want to show off your newly acquired skills in Photoshop?

Whichever the reason, this forum is for you.

Note that you don’t have to be a professional artist – that is not the point! Even if you are just trying a new hobby, but something interesting came out, why not share it with others and get feedback from the community?

Of course, as with any other forum, ensure that your work is adequate theme-wise. As this website covers primarily mindly works, we assume that your work has some relation to the topics of the mind. Also given the mind-bending or even surreal nature of the works we analyse, why not adding a bit of bizareness in the mixture? 😉

IMPORTANT

Never use this or any other forum on this website for selling/monetary purposes! The Your Projects forum in particular is meant to be a space for sharing ideas and getting to know each other’s work; it is not a platform for profit! Check the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy for more information, or contact us if you are unsure.

Off-Topic

Would you prefer to discuss photos of your cat? Or perhaps you would like to share a new tasty recipe?

Post in Off-Topic anything you would like to share with us which is not related to the bizarre.

Mindlybiz