The Smaller Picture


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

<< This is frame 1501. >>

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

Previous pictures :
Great Britain 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 1502 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.