The Smaller Picture

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

<< This is frame 301. >>

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 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 302 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.