Day 261 of 2026
“The Long Warm Trace”
FIELD NOTE — Hall 4, post-session, Christchurch
14:02 — chairs read cold. tubular frames, true black, no exceptions.
14:02 — ceiling grid: chilled cyan-white, unbroken across the row.
14:03 — seat, third row left: a bloom. molten amber, decaying at its own edge.
14:03 — cup on table: cooled to ambient. lanyard: cooled to ambient. programme sheet, face down, unread: cooled to ambient.
14:04 — window: grey doing nothing. ten degrees. remarkably uniform.
14:05 — bloom persists, fainter. everything else in the frame has already agreed to be cold.
14:06 — nothing else in the frame will confirm that anyone was here.