The Smaller Picture


 XX        X   XX XX
X  X     X   XX X XX
 X   XX X    X X XXX
XXXXXX     XX  XXX  
  XXX  X X XXX XXXX 
X  X  X  X X  XXXX  
X X X XX XXXX XX  XX
XX XXXXXXXXXXXXX  XX
     XXXXXXXXX XXXXX
    XXXXXXXXXXX   X 
     XXXXXXXXXXXX   
  XX XX  XXXXXX    X
X   XX XX XXX    X  
X  XX XXX  X XXX    
 X  XXXXX   XX X X  
  X XXXX     XXX    
XXX XXX  X    XXXXX 
  XXX  X  X X   XXX 
 XXXX            XX 
 X                 X
The collective consciousness was attempting to create a spider.

<< This is frame 32701. >>

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 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 32702 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.