The Smaller Picture

XX      X      XX XX
XXX    X       X  XX
XX X XX       X  XXX
   X X    X   XXXXX 
  XXXXX X   X XXX XX
XX XX XX XXX X     X
XXX XXXXXXXX XX  XXX
XX XXXX XXXXXX XX  X
    X XXXXXXXXXX XXX
X    XXXXXXXXX X XXX
  XXX XXXXXXX X X X 
 XX X XXXXXXXXXXX   
XX   XXXXXXXXX  XX  
XX X  XXXXXXX  X  XX
X   XXX     XX X   X
   XXX X      XX X X
  XXXX  X     XXXX  
  XX            X X 
XXX X    XX    X XX 
XX X      XXX    XXX
The collective consciousness was attempting to create a spider.

<< This is frame 34501. >>

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 34502 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.