In the beginning (and for some of the smaller subreddits), it was people building art. But for the most recognizable pieces, there were simply hundreds of bots enforcing a provided image.
I know in the art that I helped draw around around Rocket League, we changed the art around and added more stuff to it over time, and using bots made it slower for us. Pure determination and account-hopping is what worked for us.
To me, it's not more bot-created than a modern protest movement might be said to be Android- or Google- or Apple-created -- they are the extensions used to manifest a human will based on the combined creativity and values :)
And that's just one highly complex piece which evaded defacement.
Take a look at it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tT0F6ZPG-I
- Nathan, Ex Machina (2015)
My favorite was the belgium flag which melts into a hotdog with ketchup and mustard with a beer tap on the black portion.
There's a LOT of space there, and it's extremely interesting to me to just scroll around and look at the various little parts.
Logos, flags, sayings, memes, beautiful patterns, pop culture references, memorials, jokes, and a ton more.
Some of my favorites being a fantastic section of hearts in various flags and patterns [1], and the various areas where the art that incorporated the streaks of rainbows into their creation instead of trying to overwrite it[2]. And just the overall cooperation between some groups (especially where the flags collided and decided to put hearts at their borders, one example of many at [3])
It's a really amazing creation!
[0] https://www.reddit.com/place?webview=true
[1] http://i.imgur.com/N6HlFOe.png
Reddit users have names. Pseudonyms, often, but that's quite different from being anonymous, like on 4chan.
In particular, on /r/place, you could see the name of the user who placed each pixel, and this was relevant in diplomacy and conflicts between factions.
