The Smaller Picture

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

<< This is frame 4201. >>

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 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 4202 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.