The Smaller Picture

X     X XX   X X    
   XXX  X XXXX  X X 
 X     XX XX XXX  X 
 X   XXXX XX X XX X 
X XX   XXXXX XX  X X
XX   XXX XXXXXX     
XX  X X X XXXXX X X 
  X    XXX XXXXXX X 
X X    XXXXXXXX   X 
    XX  XXXXXX   X X
   XX   XXX X X  XXX
  XX X  XX XXXXX X  
XXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX  X
 X XX  XXXX XXX  XXX
 XXXXX X XXXXXX  XX 
 XXX   XXX  XX X XX 
    XXX XXXXXX   XX 
X XXXX XXXXXXXX    X
 X XX  X XXX   XX   
XXXX XXX XX X X XXX 
The collective consciousness was attempting to create Great Britain.

<< This is frame 9901. >>

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

Previous pictures :
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 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 9902 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.