The Smaller Picture


  X    X XXX X  XX  
X XXXXXXX X XX XX   
X   X   X X XXXXXXX 
  X   X   X XXXX  XX
X  X  XXX  X   X X X
XXXXX XX X    XXXX X
XXX XXX XX   XXX XX 
X     XXX X   X  XX 
 XX XXX  XX   X  XXX
 X  X    X X   XX   
 X X X XXXXXXX   XXX
XX        XXXX  XX  
XX X          XXXXX 
X  X  X XXX X   XXX 
X  XX   X  X  X   XX
   X    X  X X   X  
XXXX X X X X XXXXXXX
 X  XXX  X   XXX  XX
   XX XXXX XXXX    X
XX    X X   XX X XXX
The collective consciousness was attempting to create a human head.

This is frame 1. >>

New pictures being created :
bird sword cat sofa castle apple

Previous pictures :
Great Britain face star bucket flag banana map of the world umbrella question mark telephone circle spiral stick person letter arrow anything bee car wineglass cup landscape word heart fish lamp monster television computer tree goat spider boat chair flower house anything


Created by Kevan Davis in July 2002, based on Kevin Kelly's account of hive-mind audience emergence.
Each picture starts from a randomised grid. There have been 2 flips to this one, so far.
See also: the official Typophile Font spinoff and Tom Rankin's filtering of it.

Other people have built much better emergent art projects
since this went live in 2002, most notably Swarm Sketch, Pixelfest and TheBroth.