The Smaller Picture


XX X XX   XXXX  X   
   X  X XX  XXX X   
   X XXXX      X    
 XX  X    XXXX X XX 
X X X XXX X X XX X X
X XXXXX X X X XXXX X
X  XX   XXXXXXX X  X
  X XXXXX  X  XXXX X
XX X  X XX X X  XXXX
  XXXXXX XXXXXXXX   
 XX    X X XX XXXXX 
  XX XXXXX    XX  X 
XX  XXXX X  X XXXX  
XX XX    XXX  XX  X 
XXX  XXX XXX X XXX X
  XXXX  XXXXXX X X  
 X X XX XX X  XXX X 
 X X X X XX  XXXX   
XXX XXXX XX X XXX X 
     XX XX XXX      
The collective consciousness was attempting to create a flower.

<< This is frame 2101. >>

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 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 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 2102 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.