**RELATED TERMS: Performance; Performativity **
Particpants are those taking an active part in an event such as a narrative environment. The term participant is preferred to that of ‘user’ to avoid the more functionalist connotations of that term, and to suggest that a ‘visitor’ to a narrative environment is more engaged that a reader, spectator or audience member. They are more of a performer.
Theoretically, a participant is understood as an actant, one whose performativity is part of the field of actantiality or performativity that the narrative environment constitutes.
Participant is a term which extends beyond the usual understanding of ‘user’. It posits an active involvement of participants in the generation of the work, at a profound level, through interaction with, arrangement of, or even production of, its elements.
See the work of Usman Haque, particularlyOpen Source Architecture andReconfigurable House
A participant is defined here as an actor receiving, contributing and/or determining the solution. ‘Participant’ is used here in place of the more traditional term ‘user’, to emphasize the active nature of interaction.