The Smaller Picture


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

<< This is frame 5101. >>

New pictures being created :
bird sword cat human head sofa castle apple

Previous pictures :
Great Britain face star bucket 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 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 5102 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.