Electromagnetic experimental

Wayfinding Current

trace the path a visitor has travelled and the current flowing from home to where they are

Running the actual pattern live via applyPattern() — switch the substrate, stack overlays, watch the signals, or reverse the dynamics. Not a mock.

"Wayfinding Current" — trace the path a visitor has travelled and the current flowing from home to where they are. It has a propagate layer (travelling waves through the medium), a fieldflow layer (solar prominences, aurora, plasma streams, guided matter), a sink layer (capture matter (accretion well)), and a memory layer (a decaying trail / hysteresis). Matter follows the field geometry because of fieldflow, not the field-owning force itself. The active render stack is streamlines, heatmap, field-lines.

Applied signals-only over the nav. A current propagates from the wordmark (home/source) toward the current route along the nav structure (fieldflow carries, it does not push); visited destinations sink matter into a faint wake that memory holds across client-side navigation, riding on the persisted field-root. The declared render layers (streamlines, heatmap, field-lines) are the visual vocabulary when drawn.

Runtime tokens: propagate travelling waves through the mediumfieldflow solar prominences, aurora, plasma streams, guided mattersink capture matter (accretion well)memory a decaying trail / hysteresis
Concepts: wake trail provenance accretion
Metrics: signal a semantic lane — drive it with data-field-<metric> (or a domain model); without that its --field-<metric> stays inertrecency computed every frame by the platform (proximity · engagement · relationships · age)memory computed every frame by the platform (proximity · engagement · relationships · age) signal is a host-supplied lane — drive it with data-field-<metric> (or a domain model); without that, its --field-* stays inert.
Diagnostics: causality field-lines inspector
Conditions: return related
Render: streamlines · heatmap · field-lines
Reduced motion: visited destinations get a static "seen" tick and the path reads as a breadcrumb — no travelling current
Without motion: the journey is a breadcrumb list home → current; visited links are labelled seen

Copy this pattern

<field-root></field-root>
  <div data-body="propagate" data-strength="0.9" data-range="360" data-feedback></div>
  <div data-body="fieldflow" data-strength="0.8" data-range="0"></div>
  <div data-body="sink" data-strength="0.5" data-range="240"></div>
  <div data-body="memory" data-strength="0.6" data-range="280"></div>

<script type="module">
  import '@fundamental-engine/elements';
</script>

<field-root></field-root>
  <div data-body="propagate" data-strength="0.9" data-range="360" data-feedback></div>
  <div data-body="fieldflow" data-strength="0.8" data-range="0"></div>
  <div data-body="sink" data-strength="0.5" data-range="240"></div>
  <div data-body="memory" data-strength="0.6" data-range="280"></div>

import { FieldField } from '@fundamental-engine/react';

export default function WayfindingCurrent() {
  return (
    <FieldField>
      <div data-body="propagate" data-strength="0.9" data-range="360" data-feedback />
      <div data-body="fieldflow" data-strength="0.8" data-range="0" />
      <div data-body="sink" data-strength="0.5" data-range="240" />
      <div data-body="memory" data-strength="0.6" data-range="280" />
    </FieldField>
  );
}

{
  "id": "wayfinding-current",
  "name": "Wayfinding Current",
  "intent": "trace the path a visitor has travelled and the current flowing from home to where they are",
  "naturalField": "electromagnetic",
  "status": "experimental",
  "primitives": [
    "propagate",
    "fieldflow",
    "sink",
    "memory"
  ],
  "concepts": [
    "wake",
    "trail",
    "provenance",
    "accretion"
  ],
  "conditions": [
    "return",
    "related"
  ],
  "bodies": [
    {
      "body": "propagate",
      "strength": 0.9,
      "range": 360,
      "feedback": true
    },
    {
      "body": "fieldflow",
      "strength": 0.8,
      "range": 0
    },
    {
      "body": "sink",
      "strength": 0.5,
      "range": 240
    },
    {
      "body": "memory",
      "strength": 0.6,
      "range": 280
    }
  ],
  "render": [
    "streamlines",
    "heatmap",
    "field-lines"
  ],
  "metrics": [
    "signal",
    "recency",
    "memory"
  ],
  "diagnostics": [
    "causality",
    "field-lines",
    "inspector"
  ],
  "accessibility": {
    "reducedMotion": "visited destinations get a static \"seen\" tick and the path reads as a breadcrumb — no travelling current",
    "meaningWithoutMotion": "the journey is a breadcrumb list home → current; visited links are labelled seen"
  },
  "notes": "Applied signals-only over the nav. A current propagates from the wordmark (home/source) toward the current route along the nav structure (fieldflow carries, it does not push); visited destinations sink matter into a faint wake that memory holds across client-side navigation, riding on the persisted field-root. The declared render layers (streamlines, heatmap, field-lines) are the visual vocabulary when drawn."
}

Copy this pattern

See also