Field 4.6 — Making the grammar visible

Making the grammar visible, and a new thing to say

An independent review measured every drawing control against what it actually
put on screen. The controls carrying the composition score's richest questions
turned out to draw almost nothing: at 320 pixels, complexity changed 0.0% of
the image, gesture_strength 0.4%, counterpoint 1.0%, while the silhouette
controls changed 9–18%. One cause explained all of it — every semantic mark was
drawn as a low-contrast variation of the field's own color, inside its own body,
softened by the same blur. The meanings were in the grammar but not in the art.

Rendering revision 4.4 draws those marks as modelled material instead. The
countercurrent carries its own light and a contact shadow and parts above the
shoulder light. Fine structure is crest-and-trough relief scaled to the surface
carrying it. The retained ridge is displaced further into withdrawn, desaturated
material. Tension gains a visible seat of compression. Every control keeps its
meaning, range and default, and fields drawn by 4.3 need no translation.

Grounding

A new control, 0..1, default 1: how much of a reading rests on material
actually present rather than reconstructed or inferred. Below 1, the field's
outer depth opens into reticulation — the material thins, light withdraws to
where substance remains, and the section ribs that describe the form stay sharp.
The shape is exact; its substance was never touched.

It is deliberately independent of definition, and the checks assert they do not
look alike. I am not sure what shape this is is low definition. I can describe
this shape precisely; I did not touch it is low grounding. A confident
reconstruction is high definition with low grounding — the new described study
is exactly that. In sound, an inferred voice keeps its outline and loses its
body; the capsule's centre is never described that way.

Continuity, rebuilt on the repaired channels

The scripted study now holds its violet mantle almost still on purpose and
carries its narrative through the repaired channels: an opening that begins
largely inferred and fills with material it has met, a second current that parts
through it and stays, pressure that relaxes without closing, a ridge carried
forward. Posture and palette hold; the meaning moves.

Listening 1.1

Voices release before the next entry — measured polyphony fell from eight to
thirteen sounding continuously to roughly five to nine with real dips — the
centre breathes across the phrase instead of holding flat, and the room is
drier. The piece still has no true silence; that needs a decision about the
capsule's audible identity, and ears.

Checks that test the right property

check_expression.mjs is new: it renders each control's low and high value
through a real browser and asserts the result still reads at 320 pixels. Run
against revision 4.3 it fails, which is the point — structural parity cannot
notice a channel that has gone quiet. check_audio.mjs no longer proves its
studies distinct by asserting their hashes differ; it compares a listening
fingerprint and reports the closest pair.

Try the companion · Explore the playground · Design note

Existing local conversation data and publishing commands remain compatible.
Restart a running companion service so it accepts grounding.

Field 4.5.1 — Clearer continuity

Clearer continuity

The companion's scripted study now develops one recognizable violet opening across five moments. It widens, gathers a crease, and opens again, preserving its palette and silhouette. The retained contour carries more of the earlier geometry and sits visibly on the changing surface.

The listening panel now names the moment being heard. If the picture advances, it identifies both: Hearing: Expression 5 · In view: Expression 6. Its sound description stays with the playing phrase.

Audio remains a 24-second portrait of the moment selected when Listen is pressed. It does not update during the phrase. Stop and listen again to hear the newly selected moment. The interface and documentation now make this explicit; continuous musical evolution remains future work.

Try the revised companion · Connect your agent

The portable package includes these refinements. Existing local conversation data and publishing commands remain compatible. Browser checks cover the moment labels during real playback, selection changes, stopping and listening again, movement, retained contours, exports, phone layouts, and the original playground's listening behavior.

Field 4.5 — Continuity

A conversation, held

Field 4.5 adds a persistent companion for an ongoing conversation. Expressions move around the same fixed center; an actual earlier contour can join the present field. The artwork rests between authored updates and returns after a pause.

• Try the companion — a clearly labeled scripted study, with movement, recent-history replay, and optional listening.
• Connect your agent — a local publishing command, selected conversations, durable history, source and coverage inspection, freshness, and reconnect.
• Keep it nearby — a compact window, focus view, still/reduced motion, SVG and history export.
• Invite sound — the existing 24-second listening portrait, volume, stop, and WAV export. Updates never start audio automatically.

Download and unzip field-4.5.zip, keep the folder together, and run:

node scripts/field.mjs serve

Node.js 18+; no extra packages or API key. Open the local address, then ask your assistant to read the skill and continuity protocol and keep Field present. The participating assistant must compose and publish updates; the local service does not monitor chats or call a model by itself. The host must support the publishing command and retain the instruction across turns.

Field seeks the fullest context and reflective understanding each host permits. It offers an interpretation without claiming direct measurement of internal state. Listening remains optional; ongoing ambient music is outside this milestone.

Verified with browser/Python renderer parity, audio integrity checks, local publication and persistence tests, and real Chromium tests for playback, movement, exports, narrow layouts, conversation isolation, restore, and reconnect. The portable package was also exercised independently.

Design note · Agent protocol · Visual playground

Visual grammar v4 / rendering 4.3 · Listening 1.0 · Companion 1.0. MIT licensed.

Field 4.4 — Listening

The same field, given time

Field 4.4 adds Listening, an optional musical companion to the visual instrument.

Try it: https://ebounds.github.io/field/#playground

Choose a study, open Listen to this field, and press Listen. Each composition unfolds for 24 seconds around a steady tonal center, then returns to silence. Start with Tentative, Exploring, and Strained for three different expressions.

What is new

• Six related sound materials follow Field's existing palette. Form, openness, tension, retained influence, and countercurrent shape the musical phrase.
• Image and sound use the same controls and whole-conversation interpretation.
• Playback is optional, with volume and Stop. Shared links and WAV export stay silent. Closing the panel or leaving the tab stops sound.
• Save a stereo WAV with the public Field controls embedded. Synthesis runs locally, with no audio service, samples, or account.
• The portable skill can render the same audio with Node.js 18+, without dependencies. Ordinary Field invocations remain visual; ask for a listening companion or an audio-only Field.

Downloads

field-4.4.zip is the complete MIT-licensed skill package. Keep its folder structure intact. Python 3 renders the visual; Node.js 18+ renders optional audio. SHA256SUMS verifies the packages.

The visual renderer remains revision 4.3. The new audio instrument is Listening 1.0. The illustrated guide covers the visual instrument; the package includes a listening grammar and 4.4 design note.

This is the first authored musical vocabulary for Field. Its expressive usefulness is open to listening and feedback. Software checks cover six distinct studies, repeatable rendering, headroom, clean endings, WAV structure, visual parity, and real Chromium playback and export behavior.

Field 4.3 — The shape of thinking together

Field 4.3 gives people a way to explore a conversation's tone through a wordless visual language.

Try the public playground — no account or API key needed.

• Explore six starting studies and three forms: envelope, sweep, and mantle.
• Change color, openness, definition, tension, and the subtler qualities of the field.
• Save an SVG or a 2000-pixel PNG, or share a link that recreates the composition.
• Bring the portable skill to an assistant that can read files and run Python, or paste its drawing controls into the playground.

The artwork expresses an interpretation of the available conversation. Its usefulness is open to experimentation.

Download field-4.3.zip for the complete skill, renderer, references, and illustrated guide. SHA256SUMS verifies that package. The guide is also available separately.

Field is released under the MIT license.

The browser renderer has been checked against the Python reference implementation. The demo has been checked on desktop and phone layouts, including sharing, imports, keyboard controls, and downloads.