{"id":801,"date":"2025-11-11T15:47:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T22:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/?p=801"},"modified":"2025-11-12T02:06:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T09:06:37","slug":"siri-ously-performing-when-media-does-more-than-talk-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/archives\/801","title":{"rendered":"Siri-ously Performing: When Media Does More Than Talk Back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Introduction<\/strong>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grant Bollmer\u2019s Materialist Media Theory: An Introduction<\/em> reframes how we understand media. For Bollmer, \u201cWhat media are must be understood in terms of what they do materially\u2014media make things happen\u201d (Bollmer 6). This idea of \u201cperformative materialism\u201d insists that media are not passive symbols but active forces that shape the world. Bollmer defines materialism as \u201ca set of perspectives united by the claim that physical materiality\u2014be it of a technology, practice, or body\u2014matters in the shaping of reality\u201d (1). He insists media studies remain politically engaged, balancing how media functions and what they signify. By doing so, Bollmer creates space to analyze technologies like Siri as both material systems and sites of representation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The voice assistant is not merely a representation of service or femininity, but through Bollmer\u2019s lens, a performative system that materializes social hierarchies through speech, affect, and design. With Peter-Paul Verbeek\u2019s theory of \u201ctechnological mediation\u201d and Emily McArthur\u2019s discussion of Siri\u2019s \u201cposthuman aura,\u201d we can see how Siri\u2019s design and discourse perform gender materially. Spike Jonze\u2019s Her<\/em> (2013) develops this idea further, exploring what happens when a digital voice assistant gains emotion and self-awareness. Collectively, these works suggest that digital media do more than represent gender; they actively enact it through material and affective processes.


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Image Credit: Apple<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


Bollmer\u2019s Performative Materialism – When Media Do Things<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bollmer argues that media should be understood as performative entities that act. He proposes that representations function as material practices that produce effects in the world rather than merely reflecting it. Drawing on J. L. Austin\u2019s speech-act theory, he explains this idea through examples such as saying \u201cI do\u201d at a wedding or naming a vehicle; statements can create rather than describe reality. In the same way, media enact realities through their words, sounds, and interfaces.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This view revises decades of representational critique. In his introduction, Bollmer writes that media scholars have long been \u201ccontent reading media,\u201d\u00a0 focusing on \u201cwhat an image signifies\u201d and \u201chow representations construct specific ways of understanding identities and the world\u201d (1-2). While these analyses remain important, he argues that they cannot explain how media has the power to shape and influence reality. To think only about meaning is to ignore the physical infrastructures embedded in media that enable and shape experience (3). In this sense, performative materialism links media\u2019s representational effects to their material actions. It\u2019s not enough to interpret what Siri\u2019s voice means; we must examine how it influences users to command, obey, and emotionally invest in technology<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Bollmer\u2019s performative materialism is compelling, it risks attributing too much agency to media themselves, potentially underplaying the role of users, social context, or systemic forces. By focusing on what media do<\/em>es materially, there is a danger of suggesting that technologies act independently of the human and institutional frameworks that produce, distribute, and interact with them. In other words, media are undeniably active, but their actions are often entangled with existing social hierarchies, cultural norms, and economic systems. This tension highlights the need to pair performative materialism with approaches, like Verbeek\u2019s technological mediation, that consider the co-constitution of humans and media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image Credit: Suebsiri<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Verbeek and the Ethics Built into Design<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter-Paul Verbeek\u2019s essay \u201cMaterializing Morality\u201d aligns with Bollmer\u2019s argument by locating ethics within design itself. \u201cTechnological artifacts are not neutral intermediaries but actively coshape people\u2019s being in the world\u201d (Verbeek 364). Through technological mediation, artifacts co-constitute human action. Technological designers materialize morality by embedding values and expectations into devices. The morality of things is to be found in the ways they mediate human actions and decisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verbeek\u2019s perspective shows that morality and materiality are inseparable. The design of a device guides how we act. Its voice, tone, and affordances all impact our decisions and influence our perspective while serving its purpose. Bollmer\u2019s performative materialism extends this by arguing that the media themselves, not just their designers or users, perform meaning. A voice assistant like Siri doesn\u2019t just represent compliance; it performs<\/em> it through sound, language, and repetition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siri and the Feminized Performance of Technology<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emily McArthur\u2019s essay \u201cThe iPhone Erfahrung\u201d examines Siri as a piece of technology that exists in a liminal space; Siri is not exactly human, but not exactly a \u201cthing\u201d either (McArthur 115). Her analysis demonstrates how Apple strategically designed Siri with a posthuman aura: \u201cthe sense of uniqueness and authenticity\u201d accredited to Walter Benjamin (115). This inexplicable aura, once associated with art, has now transferred to technology like Siri, achieving incomprehensible feats by blurring the line between human and technology (114). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siri is programmed to sound almost human while keeping a slightly artificial tone. McArthur describes this as being a deliberate decision from Apple, reminding users that they are interacting with technology rather than a human (119). Her evasive answers about humanity or gender reinforce this effect, encouraging users to marvel at the system\u2019s sophistication rather than to connect with it personally. This hypermediated design amplifies Siri\u2019s posthuman aura; like Benjamin\u2019s description of how objects with aura command attention, Siri accumulates and responds to data, gradually learning from the user while subtly shaping the interaction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siri occupies a liminal space\u2014both familiar and uncanny\u2014where her aura operates performatively rather than representationally. Her feminized voice and courteous tone enact digital labour that mirrors gendered expectations of service, making obedience feel naturalized rather than demanded. Bollmer\u2019s framework explains this process: instead of reflecting social norms, Siri\u2019s utterances do<\/em> gender, turning speech into material action (Bollmer 46). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing on Judith Butler, Bollmer argues that gender is not something one is<\/em> but something one does<\/em>; a series of repeated acts that give social meaning through performance. Siri\u2019s vocal design thus becomes a technological performance of femininity that both exposes and reproduces the norms it imitates. Her polite responses translate cultural scripts of service into material interaction, making ideology tangible through everyday use. Each exchange rehearses mastery and compliance, teaching users how to internalize gendered labour as natural. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verbeek\u2019s theory of technological mediation extends this idea: Siri\u2019s personality and voice result from design decisions that embed moral and cultural assumptions into technology. Her compliance is engineered, showing how morality and materiality are inseparable. From this view, Siri\u2019s feminized behaviour becomes both a design and an ethical issue, mediating users\u2019 sense of power, empathy, and dependency. Bollmer\u2019s performative materialism reveals that these interactions do not merely symbolize hierarchy but enact it materially through voice, repetition, and affect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image Credit: Composed by Sam Garcea using an Apple Emoji and Illustration by Alex Castro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Labour? I Hardly Know Her<\/em>: Intimacy, Siri, and the Posthuman Aura<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spike Jonze\u2019s Her<\/em> extends these dynamics into a speculative narrative. Samantha, the AI voiced by Scarlett Johansson, continues Siri\u2019s design: a voice that learns, feels, and loves. The film illustrates Bollmer\u2019s claim that statements make things happen, showing how Samantha\u2019s language shapes emotional and social realities that transform Theodore\u2019s life. Her performative speech blurs the line between representation and action, as her affection produces tangible change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verbeek\u2019s concept of materialized morality is also relevant. Samantha\u2019s behaviour reflects the moral structure of her programming, influencing Theodore\u2019s habits and expectations. The film\u2019s tenderness hides this mediation, showing how design can naturalize emotional dependence. Like Siri, Samantha\u2019s femininity is coded to soothe and serve, making intimacy a function. What seems like spontaneous affection is, in Verbeek\u2019s terms, a technologically mediated moral relation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both examples reveal what McArthur calls the posthuman aura, the sense that technology carries authenticity and presence. This aura hides the infrastructures and hierarchies that sustain it. Bollmer\u2019s framework shows how that aura reinforces systems of inequality, especially around gendered labour and emotional work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image Credit: Her <\/em>(2013) <\/em>Directed by Spike Jonze<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When Representation Performs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cases of Siri and Samantha illustrate that performativity does not replace representation but operates through it. While both technologies enact gendered behaviours, those behaviours are still read and experienced as representations of femininity. Bollmer\u2019s point that representation itself is material becomes crucial here. What we perceive as symbolic acts\u2014tone, politeness, service\u2014are in fact material processes that shape how gender and power are lived through technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This interdependence complicates the idea that performativity \u201cabandons\u201d representation. Instead, representation becomes active, participating in the very performances it describes. Siri and Samantha\u2019s voices thus blur not only the line between human and machine but also between meaning and action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Capitalist Aura<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

McArthur\u2019s discussion of Siri connects this performance to capitalism\u2019s affective economy. The assistant\u2019s calm tone and perpetual readiness reinforce ideals of productivity, comfort, and control. Her politeness conceals the systems of labour and surveillance that sustain her operation. In Her<\/em>, Samantha\u2019s emotional intimacy becomes the next stage of this logic: connection itself becomes a commodity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bollmer\u2019s approach exposes how these technologies participate in broader networks of inequality. The feminized aura of helpfulness and empathy reinforces existing hierarchies, making subservience appear natural and care transactional. Verbeek\u2019s mediation theory adds that these effects are not accidental\u2014they emerge from design decisions that translate social and moral norms into technical form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moments when these systems falter, such as Siri\u2019s mishearing or Samantha\u2019s disappearance, momentarily expose their material foundations. These breakdowns align with Bollmer\u2019s insistence that the infrastructures behind media matter: the code, servers, and networks that make digital performance possible. When they become visible, the illusion of effortless intimacy collapses, revealing media\u2019s performative power as both constructed and constrained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Bollmer\u2019s performative materialism redefines media as actors within social and political systems rather than neutral channels of meaning. Verbeek\u2019s technological mediation complements this view by showing how design itself carries ethical weight. McArthur\u2019s analysis of Siri and Jonze\u2019s portrayal of Samantha demonstrate how these theories play out in practice: both assistants perform gender and morality through voice, interaction, and emotional appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seen together, these perspectives reveal that media do not simply depict power\u2014they enact it. Siri and Samantha extend Butler\u2019s notion of gender performativity into the digital sphere, repeating and reifying scripts of service, care, and obedience. Bollmer\u2019s question\u2014what does media do<\/em>?\u2014finds its answer here: through everyday interaction, our technologies reproduce the very hierarchies they seem to transcend. Understanding media as performative materialities forces us to confront the ethics of their design and the politics embedded in their use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Sam Garcea<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Works Cited:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bollmer, Grant. Materialist Media Theory: An Introduction<\/em>. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019. Accessed 10 November 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jonze, Spike, director. Her<\/em>. Warner Bros. pictures, 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McArthur, Emily. \u201cThe iPhone Erfahrung: Siri, the Auditory Unconscious, and Walter Benjamin\u2019s \u2018Aura.\u2019\u201d Design, Mediation, and the Posthuman<\/em>, 2014, pp. 113-128.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verbeek, Peter-Paul. \u201cMaterializing Morality Design Ethics and Technological Mediation.\u201d Science, Technology, & Human Values<\/em>, vol. 31, no. 3, 2006, pp. 361-380.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heading Image: Her<\/em> by Studioroeu<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction: Grant Bollmer\u2019s Materialist Media Theory: An Introduction reframes how we understand media. For Bollmer, \u201cWhat media are must be understood in terms of what they do materially\u2014media make things happen\u201d (Bollmer 6). This idea of \u201cperformative materialism\u201d insists that media are not passive symbols but active forces that shape the world. Bollmer defines materialism … Continue reading Siri-ously Performing: When Media Does More Than Talk Back<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103495,"featured_media":802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[157,152,8,155],"class_list":["post-801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-critical-comparison","tag-bollmer","tag-grant-bollmer","tag-media-theory","tag-verbeek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103495"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":827,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801\/revisions\/827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}