We take for granted that the voices of the helpful devices around us — Siri, Alexa, Google Home — tend to sound feminine. It may seem like a simple quirk of design, but it was actually a very purposeful decision made decades ago. In this piece, we explore the origin and evolution of those voices, and what effects they have on society’s perception of gender roles. To represent this visually, we created a visual world that was futuristic yet lifeless. Because this issue has existed for decades and shows no sign of stopping, we wanted to make sure the visuals were in no way dated. To do this, we avoided showing real-world objects, like smart phones and Alexa devices. The visual space remained as minimal as possible. Ultimately the piece ended up featuring a glowing, traveling orb — warm, but completely inhuman.
