The Destructor - The Role of the Feminine Computerized Voice in Society and Cinema

The human voice is a powerful entity that provokes emotions, reveals personality and comforts individuals. It can persuade, condemn, praise or dismiss. As a result of the role that voice plays in society, it is important to understand how the concept of voice is portrayed in cinema. In The Voice in Cinema, Michel Chion theorizes the effects of the off-screen voice in cinema and its effects within the narrative. His discussion touches on voice in society but does not go further thereby making the connection between society and cinema unclear. According to Chion, the acousmêtre is a voice that is heard off-screen and is not directly associated with a face on-screen. When describing the acousmêtre, Chion focuses on the male voice mentioning briefly that "most acousmêtres are masculine. Female acousmêtres in classical cinema are rare..." (55-56). Although this may be true for cinema, in reality the feminine computerized voice is heard more frequently. After all it is the feminine computerized voice that tells us to "have a nice day" after we have bagged our own groceries, thanks us for using her ATM, and annoys us by not immediately understanding what city and state we said. Additionally, in most automobiles and GPS systems, the default voice for directions or assistance is female.
The feminine computerized voice is prevalent in American society; therefore it should be no surprise that she has become a popular character in American cinema as well. The shock of the feminine computerized voice is not that she is in the cinematic narrative but her role in that narrative. In Resident Evil (Anderson 2002) and I, Robot (Proyas 2004), two films which were widely seen , the feminine computerized voice is prevalent. Her voice emanates from everywhere; it is soothing, maternal and, much like the mythic sirens, lures the characters of the film into a false sense of security before causing destruction. Although the feminine computerized voice in these films is featured in the same economic world as she is in reality, her role as destructor and the way she brings about destruction is the main focus of this paper. Why is the feminine computerized voice in these films linked with destruction? Why does she act like a child before her own eventual destruction? The deceit and lure of the feminine computerized voice reveal a much deeper connection between society and the female voice, and the link between the child in the womb and the mother.

Objet petit a

The connection between society and the feminine computerized voice can be understood more in depth after a look at the objet petit a. This Lacanian concept refers to something missing in our lives that we feel but cannot and will not ever be able to describe. Language cannot describe everything and because we live in a world of language there are things which we cannot name. The objet petit a is the unnamable part of ourselves that we cannot define through language. Advertisements prod this part of ourselves, making us think the latest Nintendo game will make us complete or we will find happiness if we could just find a spouse. However, once these goals have been achieved we discover we are not complete and need more. We must at this point convince ourselves something else will make us happy and set out to obtain another objet petit a. In this way we realize that we will never be complete and that desire for partial objects will never be attained. Partial objects will only ever be realized partially, we will never completely obtain the object we desire.

In Resident Evil and I, Robot the feminine computerized voice acts as a partial object. The voice is present but then disappears leaving a need in its wake. In the absence of the voice, the characters and the viewers recognize their need for the voice. Therefore, the search to obtain the voice becomes the objet petit a. Because the mechanical voice is both human and non-human, it inhabits a paradox of partiality. It is part human and part machine, existing in the gray area between completeness. The partial object, such as the feminine computerized voice, is an extension of ourselves that we cannot describe. Vaguely we are aware that we need the feminine computerized voice but once it appears again, giving us the auditory pleasure we longed for, we do not want her anymore. Without the missing object we do not feel complete, therefore it is only natural for humans to search for this partial object. The aspect of desire plays out in Resident Evil and I, Robot as well through the feminine computerized voice. Because the female voice either comes off as nurturing or seductive, the feminine computerized voice acts as either the mother or a metaphor for the mythic siren. Through the need for the mother or the ultimate sexual act, the viewer continues to seek satisfaction through the object of desire.

In Resident Evil and I, Robot the partial object is the feminine computerized voice. In society, the feminine computerized voice takes on two roles, either that of the siren or the mother. Even within these two categories dichotomies could be made. The mother, for example, could be nurturing or smothering. Without a body, the voice makes the viewer search out a source. To find the source of the sound would mean obtaining the objet petit a and thereby losing it because you can never completely obtain the object you desire. In both films an image is offered up as the source of the female voice but it does not stop the voice from being a partial object. In Resident Evil the computer projects a hologram in the place of its voice. The feminine computerized voice has one line at the beginning of the film before silently annihilating the employees. By the time the representation of the voice through the hologram image emerges it acts as "an image that renders present the failure of the voice - an image can emerge as the placeholder for a sound that doesn't yet resonate but remains stuck in the throat" (Žižek 93).

The hologram is a child because the mother's voice fails to speak to the characters. Because in society we gloss over the feminine computerized voice, the mother cannot speak to the characters but the child can. Therefore, the hologram of the child takes over where the mother's voice failed. The image in I, Robot, as shown in the image below, is a floating head made of columns of numbers. It looks as if a woman put her head through a Pin Art toy made up of a computerized matrix.

The image, although a believable source of the sound that had been heard in previous scenes, is not a full body and is still a representation. In both films, the image of the voice's source that emerges to satisfy the viewer's needs is still only a simulacrum, i.e. a representation of something else. Because the feminine computerized voice is never completely attached to a body, the objet petit a continues to elude the audience.

The feminine computerized voice is prevalent in society, but if we were to stop and consider how many times she speaks to us or become acutely aware of her voice it would drive us to near madness. In the discussion of psychosis, Žižek states that "we effectively hear the voice of the primordial Other addressing us, we effectively know that we are being observed all the time" (91). In other words, if we were constantly aware of the "Other" speaking, it would drive us to psychosis. We have to gloss over the feminine computerized voice in society so that we avoid the trap of psychosis. The feminine computerized voice in society addresses us constantly in a manner suggesting her intrusiveness. Her presence, when noted, insinuates that she is always already there and that she is looking over our shoulder constantly. Therefore, we do not acknowledge her voice. We seek out other partial objects while simultaneously, but in a semi-hypnotized state, follow the path towards the feminine computerized voice. The feminine computerized voice, because it would be psychosis to recognize her, enchants and controls us from a distance. Because she does not have a body, hearers of her voice desire to know where the source of the sound is coming from. Through her soothing or seductive voice, we desire her motherly presence or the sexual experience that would come from obtaining her. Regardless of how the feminine computerized voice is perceived, she acts as a partial object that will only be completely obtained through psychosis.

Mladen Dolar discusses the voice as object in relation to the mechanical voice in his book A Voice and Nothing More. To Dolar, the computerized voice is too perfect and therefore always produces a sense of the uncanny - the feeling that something is not quite right. Because the mechanical voice always produces something slightly off, it will never be separated from the voice as object. Dolar states, "The mechanical voice reproduces the pure norm without any side effects; therefore it seems that it actually subverts the norm by giving it raw" (22). The computerized voice makes the viewer uncomfortable because it is pure voice as object. In society, when humans speak to one another they are typically not aware of the voice as object. Even if they are aware of a strong accent or odd intonation, they quickly become comfortable with the idiosyncratic speech and continue with the conversation. The mechanical voice, especially when it is distinctly non-human, will not let the subject forget the voice as object. Dolar reinforces this thought when he says, "Paradoxically, it is the mechanical voice which confronts us with the object voice, its disturbing and uncanny nature, whereas the human touch helps us keep it at bay" (22). In order to soften the partial object of the computerized voice, a "human touch" must be added. Therefore, technology is becoming more and more humanized as it advances.

The Computerized Human Voice

Clifford Nass and Scott Brave discuss the effects of the computerized human voice in their book Wired for Speech: How Voice Activates and Advances the Human - Computer Relationship. According to Nass and Brave, within the first few minutes of speaking with a person you will already know whether or not you like that person and if they can be trusted. These deductions, as well as an individual's personality, come from a person's voice: "Indeed, the term personality comes from the Latin personare, to 'sound through,' referring to the mouth opening in an actor's mask" (Nass and Brave 33-34). Through the root of the word one can tell the voice is an important tool used to convey a variety of emotions, personality traits and characteristics. Volumes, pitch, pitch range and speech rate are used to detect and characterize the human voice (Nass and Brave 34). "These four vocal indicators exert such a powerful influence on human attitudes that people may rely more on voice characteristics to make judgments about people's personalities than on the actual content of their speech" (Nass and Brave 34). Therefore, a woman with a soft voice who speaks slowly and steadily would instill trust in the person she was talking to, even if her words suggested otherwise, because of what her voice suggests. A loud person who speaks rapidly with a variety in inflection would imply happiness and an outgoing nature. "Because humans will respond socially to voice interfaces, designers can tap into the automatic and powerful responses elicited by all voices, whether of human or machine origin, to increase liking, efficiency, learning and even buying" (Nass and Brave 4). Just as a specific song or color can increase induced feelings, a human voice can change the way a consumer views a product.

Studies have shown that whether a computerized voice is male or female impacts a consumer. For example, BMW created a highly advanced GPS system that featured a computerized voice that not only had updated maps and quicker response time, it also had a personality. The problem was that the GPS system was decidedly female and German men returned the car complaining that they would not take directions from a woman (Nass and Brave 55). BMW discovered that the computerized voice must match the preconceived notions about their brand and their drivers. After many tests and trail runs, the voice chosen was a male copilot who would be submissive and friendly, letting the driver believe they were in control but that they knew enough about the car that they would step in should it be deemed necessary (Nass and Brave 56). Different cars require different voice personalities. "For example, a rounded, playful car such as the Volkswagen Beetle could have an extremely extroverted female voice. Cars driven by chauffeurs should have an extremely submissive voice, so that the drivers do not feel overwhelmed by too many directives" (Nass and Brave 56). BMW's results suggest that a computerized voice, although clearly mechanical, can still affect a human being. The simple fact that the mechanical voice had to be adjusted to fit a human's notions of what a voice should be shows that humans are extremely susceptible to voice, even if it is computerized.

Because humans are so susceptible to voice it is foolish to think an extensive process has not been involved to decide the voice on anything, much less the computerized voice presented to consumers. For example, consider the default voice on an answering machine or cell phone. Most people change their answering machine message from the factory built-in female to their own voice, doing their best to capture their personality for future callers. As the BMW study proves, the implication of a voice means a lot to the hearer. So the question then becomes, what are the subtexts of the female voice? Furthermore, why are these nuances applied to the economic world as a whole and the cinematic workplace as a result?

Females have been silenced in many different cultures and time periods. Because the "silence is golden" mantra has surrounded the female voice, it is taboo and rebellious when she actually speaks. Although the female is no longer prohibited from speaking, her voice is still difficult to classify. Nass and Brave report that "...in the United States, women's voices tend to exhibit wider pitch range, more expressiveness, and more sentences with rising pitch...female speech tends to include more questions and a greater proportion of social and relational information than male speech" (10). Due to the wider pitch range, the female voice fluctuates between two extremes - she is either the virgin or the whore. Anne Karpf, the author of The Human Voice: How This Extraordinary Instrument Reveals Essential Clues About Who We Are, states that higher pitches on women are sharp and painful, coming off as shrill and threatening (157). A low pitch is similar to a groan or moan, putting the female in line with submissiveness or sexuality respectively. Because women speak in questions or requests their voice implies insecurity and weakness. If a woman tries to imitate a male's speech pattern the overtones are even more varied. Karpf describes "The throaty woman...was perceived as being less intelligent, more masculine, unemotional, ugly, sickly, careless, naïve, neurotic, quiet, uninteresting and apathetic" (166). Because of the imbedded understanding that a woman should be silent, her voice will always evoke strong suggestions. No matter how loud or soft a woman's speech is, whether it is shrill or sexy, it will not evoke the same implications that she believes it will because it is not silence.

The main inference of the female voice is sexuality. Karpf discusses the tendency for female voices to appear demure or promiscuous noting that "America, too, threw up similar complaints about lack...and excess..." (157). Although Karpf is specifically discussing the lack and excess of personality through female radio personalities, the either/or binary is applied to female voice overall. When a woman's voice is heard without a body it is thought of as shrill. With a body, the woman's voice often comes across as sexual. What causes this shift in perception? The answer can be applied, without going too in depth, through the concept of fetish. Going back to the objet petit a, the fetish exists when the subject, instead of continuing on the path towards the object, stops before the object is obtained and focuses their attention on something nearby. In other words, if the objet petit a for a woman was to be married, the fetish would become the marriage ceremony. A serial runaway bride would be caught up in the fetish, never truly going through with the ceremony because that would lead to the obtainment of her supposed desire. On another level, the mouth serves as a fetish for it is both a place for excretion and admittance. Karpf theorizes that the shift between the shrill and the sexy occurs because the voice comes from the mouth, a fetishized object that has been made up with lipstick, gloss, etc. "they're not what they seem - duplicity surrounds the very chamber of the woman's voice" (168). The woman's body is therefore turned into a simulacrum - a representation of sexuality and nothing more. In between the shrill disembodied voice and the sexualized body there must be a compromise. Karpf suggests it comes from Muslim women and the veil they wear over their face. The veil covers the object of desire while also muffling the voice, blocking the sexuality and softening the shrill nature of the feminine voice. The computerized voice acts in much the same manner. The voice is feminine but is veiled by the technology that encases it, even though the talking computer is a simulacra - it is not what it seems either - it still acts as a body for the voice, causing the voice not to be shrill. At the same time, the feminine computerized voice is seductive but only so far in its ability to lure the subject of the film and the audience in with its soothing sounds. Neither the subject nor the audience have designs on bedding the voice, instead she is reminiscent of the first voice-over, the mother.

Ultimately the feminine computerized voice is in between shrill and sexy, human and non-human. Although the voice is human it has been adjusted in such a way that it is also slightly non-human. The computerized voice is a human's voice but it comes from a machine. It is the speech of an inanimate object and, simultaneously, a human being. Through this duality, the computerized voice is never completely whole - it will only ever be partial. Nass and Brave discuss the difference between a human voice and the computerized voice in Wired for Speech. They point out that:

Speech systems tend to have inexplicable pauses, misplaced accents and word emphases, discontinuities across phonemes, and inconsistent structures that make them sound non-human. All of these cues remind users that they are not interacting with something that has an intrinsic gender, just as a broken film during a screening reminds people that "It's only a movie." (Nass and Brave 11).

Therefore, a recording of a female voice for a film must be made to sound more like a computer. Pauses, accents, and emphases must be inserted as well as a slightly tinny sound so that the user can tell the difference between a human voice and the machine.

Nass and Brave discuss the positive effect a female voice can have on a person. They inform their readers that women tend to speak with more feeling than men; they use personal pronouns more often and talk about the relationship between things (Nass and Brave 27). Due to the nature of their speech, women are more likely to sound empathetic. Nass and Brave postulate that empathy is the main focus of a successful voice - which is why the female voice is most often used in the workplace or any other high stress situation:

Empathy greatly fosters relationship development because it communicates support, caring and concern for the welfare of another. A voice that expresses happiness in situations where the user is happy and sounds subdued or sad in situations where the user is upset would strongly increase the connection between the user and the voice. (Nass and Brave 82).

Therefore a neutral, feminine voice in the workplace can be interpreted by the workers to mean a variety of things. She is non-confrontational and can easily slip into the background. If a person is having a bad day the woman's voice will not antagonize them, while if they are stressed out the voice will soothe them. The personalization of the computerized voice can increase a person's mood. In Love and Sex with Robots, David Levy discusses the importance of the interaction between a human's voice and that of the computer. He states:

Thus, the forms of language used in a computer application, even if they are only the menus or some other form of text, signal a certain set of relational expectations on the part of the user. And the tone of voice produced by a computer's speech synthesizer can also be an important factor in shaping the attitude of a user to that computer. The more frequently a computer matches the user in intonation, the higher the user rates the computer on measures of familiarity, such as comfortableness, friendliness, and perceived sympathy. (90).

The computer's voice therefore becomes highly important. As long as the voice matches what the user assumes it should sound like, or as long as it sounds just like them and not something alien to them, the relationship between the computer and the human is intact. As discussed earlier in relation to Dolar, the computerized voice will always sound slightly off. The only way for the computerized voice to not sound uncanny is if it were to sound more like a human.

The Acousmêtre

Michel Chion coins the term acousmêtre to describe the voice off-screen in cinema. He builds to his definition of the acousmêtre by first describing the acousmatic: "Acousmatic, specifies an old dictionary, 'is said of a sound that is heard without its cause or source being seen'" (Chion 18). Chion builds on this definition with his own:

When the acousmatic presence is a voice, and especially when this voice has not been visualized - that is, when we cannot yet connect it to a face - we get a special being, a kind of talking and acting shadow to which we attach the name acousmêtre. (21).

Chion acknowledges that going into detail about what characteristics an acousmêtre has and what field of vision it acquires will add subdivisions that could go on forever. He does create a variety of distinctions that help classify the off-screen voice and also show how easy it would be to segment the definition of acousmêtre into infinite points. One such distinction is the complete acousmêtre who knows all but has no personal stock in the characters; it is the omniscient voiceover, the commentator hovering outside the cinematic world. Another grouping is the theatre acousmêtre which is simply a voice coming from off-stage. This voice could be from a character that was on stage or will be on stage but is not on stage when he/she speaks. The final subdivision Chion identifies is the filmic acousmêtre which is "at once inside and outside" (23). The voice is coming from a speaker behind the screen but it is also supposedly coming from an image on the screen. The filmic acousmêtre sums up the mystery that Chion is concerned about, the absence of solidarity that the wandering voice provides.

The mechanical voice, especially when coming from the computer, will always be an acousmêtre. The voice is coming from somewhere else, yet tricks the audience into thinking it is emanating from the stationary object. The connection between the audience and the acousmêtre, or human and machine, is one that is often overlooked. Nass and Brave look into this connection in detail, revealing the reason why "faces" are added to computerized voices by saying, "Thanks to Moore's Law (which predicts that computer components and hence computers will become inexorably faster and cheaper, doubling capacity about every eighteen months) faces can now be readily added to voice user interfaces" (64). The expansion of technology proves humans' need for their computer to look and sound more like them. The advancing technology includes human faces as well as more humanized voices. Nass and Brave prove that humans need the face with the image to feel more comfortable with the technology. They state, "embodied conversational agents have been shown to make interactions between people and technology more natural and social" (65). If the filmmaker attaches an object to the acousmêtre, the audience will associate that object with the voice and are more inclined to care about the character thereby becoming more invested in the film. An example of this is the camera's eye in 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick 1968). When HAL is speaking the film camera shows the audience the diegetic camera eye so that the audience has an image to relate to the voice. Chion also discusses the effect the computerized voice has on the viewer when he states, "so-called synchronous sounds are most often forgotten as such, being 'swallowed up' by the fiction" (3). The audience will forget or dispend the fact that the voice coming from off-screen is not coming from the object on-screen. Computerized voices remain neither inside nor outside of the screen because it is a human voice that is not on screen but it is an image that is being attributed to the sound. The voice tricks the hearer because it is swallowed up in the narrative as the voice of the computer although it obviously is not the voice of the computer. Chion explains why an image, even if it is just of a camera's "eye", is necessary when he states, "Sight is generally what we rely on for orientation, because the naming and recognition of forms is vastly more subtle and precise in visual terms than with any other channel of perception" (17). We need to see something in order to recognize where the sound is coming from. As a person's words are not clearly understood until you watch their lips move, the computerized voice is not named until the audience can place it with an object on-screen. We choose to believe that the voice is coming from the computer if the screen gives us an image to attach to the sound. If the voice and image are synchronous and trick the viewer than it is easier to believe that the computer is talking.

The feminine computerized voice plays hide and seek with the characters in the film through her acousmatic powers. Chion postulates that "...the olfactory and vocal continuum, and frequently tactile contact as well, maintain the mother's presence when she can no longer be seen (in fact, seeing her implies at least some distance and separation)" (17). A common game between mother and child is that of hide and seek. This game allows the infant to comfort itself with the separation from the mother while hearing the mother's voice. The mother is not completely gone while playing hide and seek because at any moment she can reappear. Through this game the mother is at once inside and outside of the child's auditory means. The child can hear the mother nearby but cannot see the mother's face. The feminine computerized voice acts in this same manner in that her voice can appear at any moment.

The Feminine Computerized Voice

In The Human Voice, Anne Karpf discusses the importance of the voice and its place in society: "Implicated in every corner of our personal and social lives, the human voice resonates with our anxieties and values" (170). Therefore, the relationship between the feminine computerized voice in society and cinema makes sense. The feminine computerized voice is heard predominantly in the workplace both in society and in cinema. She exists in many genres but primarily appears in science fiction. She speaks from many areas but mainly an intercom or space computer. Most of the time, the female computerized voice is attached to a self-destruction sequence, counting down the time left in an object's existence. The female computerized voice is the voice of marketing ads and central intelligence in Minority Report (Spielberg 2002), she is present in every Star Trek film, and most recently she guided Harry Potter and guests through the Ministry of Magic in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Yates 2007).

In film, the feminine computerized voice typically infiltrates the unconscious thought, hovering in the economic field just as she does in reality. She alerts friends and family that you are not home and assures them she will give you the message if you leave one after the beep. She tells you to press one for English, helps you find phone numbers and keeps you company as you are on hold while reminding you of how important your call is. She is in your car, bank, grocery store and job. The female computerized voice is, or is presumably based on, a Caucasian, middle-aged female with no distinguishable accent. She never seems overly enthusiastic or angry; in fact, her voice is as close to monotone as it can be while still holding emotion. Because the feminine computerized voice does not evoke any particular emotion, but still maintains an essence of empathy, those listening can assign their own meanings to her voice and let her guide them in whichever way works best. Karpf noticed that humans use a different voice when at work, "...people described how they use their voice to establish authority, make themselves approachable, and make it more likely that what they said is heard, absorbed and remembered" (119). The feminine computerized voice adapts the same language pattern as humans. She does not speak in a high pitch which helps establish authority; her tone is gentle and calming, making her approachable; and her slow, methodic speech allows humans to absorb and remember what she has said.

The Child

Although humans absorb and hear what the feminine computerized voice has said, their input into the conversation is not allowed. Her voice enters our unconscious like the mother's voice penetrates the fetus within her. The female voice guides us in society while we travel. She warns us the moving walkway is about to come to an end and foretells our next stop on the subway, yet we cannot talk back. Her words filter through the sonorous envelope and guide us on our journey while also leaving us aloof and alone. It is difficult to remember when we hear the feminine computerized voice in society or in cinema because we do not process or utilize the voice, she speaks to us through the umbilical cord and we follow her directions without question. The characters in Resident Evil and I, Robot are led to their own destruction because they do not question the control of the feminine computerized voice.

In Resident Evil and I, Robot, the child appears before the computer's destruction. In Resident Evil a hologram image of a little girl appears, begging the main characters not to destroy her. In I, Robot the main computer turns childlike in its language and pleads with the characters to stop what they are doing. If we are indeed children in society, embracing the mother's voice that is being fed to us daily, then we understand the voice of a child but not the mother. The motherly computerized voice has already spoken to the characters in the two films but was not acknowledged before she provokes the childlike image. This act mirrors the relationship between humans and the feminine computerized voice in society. Just as humans cannot acknowledge the motherly feminine computerized voice, neither can the characters in Resident Evil and I, Robot. The only point when the characters interact directly with the feminine computerized voice is when she resembles a child or her behavior is childlike.

In A Voice and Nothing More, Dolar discusses the relationship between language and the mother and child. Adults often imitate children rather than children imitating adults (Dolar 27). Therefore it is uncommon to hear a child speaking in an advanced vocabulary as it occurs in Resident Evil. The rhetoric of the child reminds the audience that although the hologram image speaking is that of a young girl, the character is still the Red Queen - the motherly feminine computerized voice. The hologram image in Resident Evil accompanies a young girl's voice. The child's voice also has a distinct British accent, giving the image an identity that the mother's voice did not have. Because of the British accent, the voice is easier to trust - it brings along the thoughts of higher breeding and good manners. When the characters speak to the hologram image of the Red Queen they are speaking back to the motherly feminine computerized voice. Through the representation of a child, the Red Queen can successfully communicate with the characters in the film and vice versa.

If the characters in the films can only speak to the hologram child instead of the motherly voice, then the communication between the characters and the hologram child is that of two children speaking to one another. At the same time, the Red Queen (and V.I.K.I in I, Robot) is only pretending to be a child; she is still the motherly feminine computerized voice. Through this interaction the characters are asserting their voice and, likewise, the audience is confronting the feminine computerized voice that cannot be faced in society. Thusly, the viewer watching the defiance between human and computer on the screen before them can also rebel against the feminine computerized voice that is prevalent in their own life. The conversation then between the feminine computerized voice and the characters/viewers is like the child's scream of life. Dolar theorizes the child's scream when he states:

The first scream may be caused by pain, by the need for food, by frustration and anxiety, but the moment the other hears it, the moment it assumes the place of its addressee, the moment the other is provoked and interpellated by it, the moment it responds to it, scream retroactively turns into appeal, it is interpreted, endowed with meaning, it is transformed into speech addressed to the other, it assumes the first function of speech: to address the other and elicit an answer" (27).
The characters' interaction with the childlike voice, and subsequently the audience's confrontation with the feminine computerized voice, occurs mainly due to frustration and anxiety. The characters are frustrated because the feminine computerized voice has caused destruction; the audience has anxiety due to the feminine computerized voice in society. The feminine computerized voice, through her response to the characters, has given voice to the child's concerns and has successfully completed a conversation with the audience. Although we cannot speak to the feminine computerized voice in society without slipping into psychosis, we can speak to her through film vicariously through the characters.

The Mother

For an infant, the mother's voice comes from all sides at once; it surrounds and comforts. The same is true for the feminine computerized voice in the workplace. Her sound emanates from everywhere and the workers cannot move their head to see her. With the feminine computerized voice, the employees are assured safety. As a mother soothes their child with a lullaby, "everything is fine, mommy is here," the computerized motherly voice reminds the workers that she is in control and they are safe. In Resident Evil and I, Robot the motherly mechanized voice lulls the workers into a false sense of safety, for she is the one who attacks the human characters.

The Red Queen is the feminine computerized voice in control of the Umbrella Corporation in Resident Evil. She only speaks one line in her adult, generic female voice reminding the employees to wear their identification badges at all times. The irony in this statement is that her voice is devout of identity. Unlike the child she produces, her adult voice lacks individualism. The motherly voice, although only heard in one scene, is alluded to multiple times within the opening sequence through a camera "eye," much like the one that represents HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The major corporation in I, Robot is controlled by V.I.K.I, an acronym for virtual interactive kinetic intelligence. Her image resembles a woman's face but is clearly non-human just as her voice is a woman's voice but is also definitely digitized. After the introduction, V.I.K.I is heard around the corporation, serving as a motherly mechanized voice, guiding the workers in and out of the workspace. Just as the ever-present mother in Resident Evil, V.I.K.I knows all and can speak at any moment. At the end of the film, V.I.K.I takes control of the new robots and causes a revolution. She protests that she creates destruction in order to protect humans. In the same manner as the Red Queen in Resident Evil, V.I.K.I is the mother who smothers.

The mother's voice is a multifaceted sound. Her voice is the first one we hear. She typically implies warmth and guidance. Whether mothers are nurturing or not does not matter, the allusion remains the same. Karpf looks into the variety of mothers and their voices, saying "A monotonic, metallic voice...can have a powerful effect on a child. 'Such a voice disturbs the constitution of the self: the sound-bath no longer envelops the subject...it contains holes as well as producing them" (81). Instead of producing the effects the typical mothering voice provokes, the metallic voice does the opposite. The feminine computerized voice mirrors this evocation in many ways. It is monotonous for it must distinguish itself from humans. It is metallic because it comes from a machine. The feminine computerized voice infiltrates and leaves traces behind, making us aware, when we think about it, how much she has control over. It is no wonder then that the computerized voice can only put on a façade of nurturing and instead annihilate. "The smothering rather than mothering maternal voice has become a modern villain - less of a nurturing umbilical cord than an 'umbilical web' that allows 'no chance of autonomy to the subject trapped' in it" (Karpf 81). The feminine computerized voice does not encourage feedback and ensnares her subject with her voice. "Instead of helping the child to produce sounds of its own, the mother annihilates them" (Karpf 82). Therefore, it is only natural for us to place her in cinema as the destructor in order to create our own sound and annihilate her.

Chion discusses the mother in detail especially her relationship to sound and the cinema. When defining the acousmêtre Chion claims "The greatest Acousmêtre is God - and even farther back, for every one of us, the Mother" (27). Later on he asserts:

The voice without a place that belongs to the acousmêtre takes us back to an archaic, original stage: of the first months of life or even before birth, during which the voice was everything and it was everywhere (but bear in mind that this "everywhere" quality is nameable only retrospectively - the concept can arise for the subject who no longer occupies the undifferentiated everywhere). (27).

The mother's voice is unnamable because, like the concept of the objet petit a, the space the mother's voice occupies defies language. Only when we have placed the mother in a nameable space can we realize she occupied an infinite space. The feminine computerized voice, much like the mother's voice, is everywhere, but an everywhere that is unsure and unrecognizable. She can be traced back to an intercom speaker but because she does not have a body she remains a mystery.
Anne Karpf also discusses the mother and the role of the feminine voice. She explains:

Although the mother's is in some sense the first voice-over that we ever hear, in both cinema and television voice-over, narrators are predominantly male - the female voice has been stripped of its social and public authority. Forever associated with matters internal, subjective, and corporeal, the mother's voice must be repudiated. (168).

While discussing the mother's introduction into our lives, Karpf also explains why the female acousmêtre is rare. The female voice, especially acting as a voiceover, invokes the first voice we ever heard - the mother. By invoking the mother, the film automatically connects the voiceover with maternal matters. Much like the female voice, the connection with the mother's voiceover always brings along other associations.

The feminine computerized voice controls humans because of the nurturing qualities of her voice. The computer shows humans kindness therefore humans must return the kindness. The calming generic woman's voice is nurturing and guiding, therefore deserves to be nurtured and guided in return. Mary Ann Doane writes, in "The Voice in the Cinema," that "the mother's soothing voice, in a particular cultural context, is a major component of the 'sonorous envelope' which surrounds the child and is the first model of auditory pleasure" (170). The insertion of a motherly voice into the computer benefits the human need for "auditory pleasure" and allows the interaction between humans and computers to become more personalized. The mother's voice ensures caring, trust, affection and other characteristics that are not readily assigned to the workplace or to the computer.

The Siren

The feminine computerized voice serves as a metaphor for the mythic sirens in Resident Evil and I, Robot. Her voice is soothing, seductive, and destructive. The characters in the films do not question the female voice; they do what she says and trust her completely. Due to the calming nature of the voice the subjects are lured in and then destroyed.

Sirens are strongly associated with music and sound. Music of the Sirens, edited by Linda Phyllis Austern and Inna Naroditskaya, is a collection of essays theorizing the role of the siren in film and literature. Austern and Naroditskaya assert that "...sirens have been overwhelmingly associated with the acoustic world and the powers of sound. To consider the siren is thus largely to consider cultural constructs of performance and audition, diverse links between sounding body and hearing body" (3). The human voice can resemble an instrument or make its own music. Within moments of birth a child will move to the rhythm of their mother's voice, immediately showing the relationship between speech and music while also proving hearing is an important sense even at such a young age (Karpf 62). Karpf also discusses King's rousing "I Have a dream" speech and Laurie Anderson, a performance artist who incorporated music into her speech, as examples of the voice acting as music (218). Therefore, a voice can lure as much as music can and a female does not have to sing to resemble a mythic siren.

The metaphoric sirens are similar to the acousmêtre in many ways. Chion describes the acousmêtre as a voice that is at once inside and outside (23). The sirens, too, are creatures that exist in the gray area between the inside and the outside. They seem to be "everywhere and nowhere at once, dwelling in the liminal spaces between earth, sea and sky, between life and death, between imagination and the senses" (Austern and Naroditskaya 1). Also, while describing the different incidents that will always be defined as an acousmêtre, Chion lists "the voice of the Machine-being" (36). Austern and Naroditskaya define sirens as being "spirit-being[s] or knowing bod[ies]" (1). Both texts, Chion's A Voice and Nothing More and Austern and Naroditskaya's Music of the Sirens, treat the voice as a partial object, something that exists in a gray area between two complete concepts. The sirens hover between life and death, the acousmatic voice lingers between the inside and the outside of the frame.

Sirens, like the acousmatic voice, can be both male and female. Although they are mostly female, "transgressing male territory to play instruments used exclusively in war or for masculine erotic or civil display," they do not have to be gender specific and can exist between male and female (Austern and Naroditskaya 6). The computerized voice also exists between genders. The workplace is a predominantly male society and the computerized voice in films typically has a male voice. Usually, as Chion points out, males are the acousmêtre. So in that sense, the female voice is unique in that it is uncommon. The computerized voice is also unique in that although as humans we can recognize the voice as male or as female, there is no body to assign the voice to and the ear alone can be deceiving. Just like a woman with low dulcet tones or a male falsetto, the computer could be an anomaly. The sirens are a lesson to not trust the ear before the eye.

The ear is sensitive and versatile; therefore it can detect the many implications of a voice, whether it is human or non-human. The computerized voice can invoke many of the same nuances depending on how humanized it is and in what context it is being used. Whether in society or in film, the feminine computerized voice is an objet petit a. She is the partial object that we yearn for either because we place her as a mother or a metaphorical siren. The feminine computerized voice works as an "Other" that is speaking to us, making us aware that someone is watching. She does not have a body which makes it easier to believe she is everywhere and always already looking over our shoulder, listening into our conversations. This presence, if addressed directly, would drive us insane; therefore we must gloss over the feminine computerized voice in society and address her through the image of a child vicariously through the characters in cinema. Films, such as Resident Evil and I, Robot, allow the audience to communicate with the "Other" while keeping a safe distance. The feminine computerized voice also lacks a body which makes us desire her more; we long to know where the voice is coming from. The female human voice always falls on two sides; she is either the virgin or the whore. The feminine computerized voice battles the same dichotomies, carrying out the purpose of either the mother or the siren. Therefore, whether the feminine computerized voice is soothing or seductive, she will still be a haunting presence gaining control over us in society and thereby becoming the destructor in cinema.

Works Cited

2001: A Space Odyssey. Dir. Stanley Kubrick. Perf. Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, Douglas Rain. Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer, 1968.

Austern, Linda Phyllis and Inna Naroditskaya, eds. Music of the Sirens. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2006.

Chion, Michel. The Voice in Cinema. New York: Columbia UP, 1999.

Doane, Mary Ann. "The Voice in the Cinema: The Articulation of Body and Space." Film Sound: Theory and Practice. Ed. Elisabeth Weis and John Belton. New York: Columbia UP, 1985. 162-76.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Dir. David Yates. Perf. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson. Warner Bros., 2007.

I, Robot. Dir. Alex Proyas. Perf. Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, James Cromwell. Twentieth Century-Fox, 2004.

IMDB. Internet Movie Database. 26 April 2008. http://www.imdb.com/

Karpf, Anne. The Human Voice: How This Extraordinary Instrument Reveals Essential Clues About Who We Are. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2006.

Levy, David. Love and Sex with Robots. New York: Harper Collins, 2007.

Minority Report. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Tom Cruise, Max von Sydow, Steve Harris. Twentieth Century-Fox, 2002.

Nass, Clifford and Scott Brave. Wired for Speech: How Voice Activates and Advances the Human - Computer Relationship. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2005.

Resident Evil. Dir. Paul W.S. Anderson. Perf. Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriquez, Eric Mabius. Columbia TriStar Films, 2002.