The Smaller Picture


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

<< This is frame 4801. >>

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 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 4802 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.