How to use
“+ person” adds a visitor, “+ party” adds two who came together; hold a person to drag (release on a seat to sit). A cat can be dragged onto any unit. Hold a piece of furniture to move it (it stays put where it does not fit); the Furniture group adds and removes pieces and restores the standard layout. Wander lets visitors roam: half the time they take a free seat for 1.5–4 minutes, otherwise half the time they go and look at a cat; people in a party move and sit together. Up to 12 people and 3 cats.
Rules · walk, stand, sit (default)
Walk, stand, sit: furniture is its own layer on the floor; the standard layout is four sofas and two chairs, ten seats, in the middle of the room and away from the walls. People have bodies: one person per aisle crossing; two cannot pass each other in an aisle, so one waits at the crossing and, after a while, takes another way. About seven in ten visitors come with someone (mostly in pairs); a party walks and sits together and its members stand next to whoever leads. Strangers no longer leave as soon as someone comes close; instead people pick spots away from strangers (1.35 m if they can, at least 1 m otherwise) and stay once they have chosen. Cats can jump down to the floor and back up: the more people around, the more a cat prefers the platforms; jumping straight up from the floor takes a while, going up by way of a sofa is quick. Units still hang over the furniture; only the ones over a seated person’s head stay up (platforms sit 1.08 m above the floor, below a seated head). Walking triggers nothing and leaves no trace. Standing still for 3 s while watching a cat makes the space lay one step for that cat towards the person, once per stop. Sitting down is full strength: from the nearest cat that can come, the space lays a route to the unit in front of the seat (1.0–1.5 m from the seat, where a cat pays no staying cost and is inside the co-warmth band) one step at a time; only the cat’s unit and the next step are formed. Whether to go is still the cat’s choice: after sitting for 3 s it takes an offered step half the time, otherwise it lies down, and when it moves it prefers the offered unit. The rest is unchanged: formed units are walls for people; a cat with a visitor inside 1 m for a few seconds retreats and keeps away for a while; a unit that would trap someone holds back; when only the bands in the way retract, those bands retract.
Rules · trace (earlier)
Passage cost: a formed unit is a wall for people, not for cats. Staying cost: a visitor leaves when another comes within 1.35 m; a cat tolerates a visitor within 1 m for a few seconds, then retreats to a farther unit and keeps away for a while; when someone stands watching it, it approaches the platform edge one time in three. The space only writes units: the cat’s own unit stays formed, the neighbour with the strongest people trace is filled, and a unit that would trap someone is held back. Giving way with only the bands in the way: a unit has twenty bands; the few beside a person or on their route retract to the post (the cloth goes back up) while the rest come down; bands under a cat never retract; the door is open by the time the person reaches it and closes behind them.
Readings
The four events follow the text: co-gaze = looking at each other for 1 s, co-warmth = standing in the other’s 0.5–1.5 m band for 2 s, contact = closer than 0.5 m, crossing = walking through the other’s 1.5 m body domain. The empty event needs an invitation gesture, which people do not have yet, so it is not counted. The share of time the cat spends beyond 1 m is a reference only: Mertens and Turner (1988) measured 78% when people ignored the cat; nothing here is fitted to it.