The Smaller Picture


 XX  XX XX X XX XXX 
 XXX     X  X XX   X
 XX X  X XX   XX X X
    XX   X  X X X  X
 XX XX   X     X X X
X  XX X  XX  XX X   
   XXX  X  XXXX XXXX
X X XXX X  XX   XXX 
 XX        XX XX XXX
X   XX     XXX   XXX
X X X XX X XX X   X 
        X X    X  X 
X X XX X  X    X XX 
XX   XX   X X X  XXX
X    XX  XX   XX  XX
 X  X XX   XXX X X X
X X     XXXX   X   X
 XX XXX XXX X X XX X
 X    X X XXXX XX   
X   XXXX XX X  XX XX
The collective consciousness was attempting to create an umbrella.

This is frame 1. >>

New pictures being created :
bird sword cat human head sofa castle apple

Previous pictures :
Great Britain face star bucket flag banana map of the world 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.