How can we register the participation of a range of elements, extending beyond the human subject, in the production of HIV events and drug effects? In the context of proposals around biomedical prevention, there is a growing awareness of the need to find ways of responding to complexity, as everywhere new combinations of treatment, behavior, drugs, norms, meanings and devices are coming into encounter with one another, or are set to come into encounter with one another, with a range of unpredictable effects. In this paper Race considers the operation of various framing devices that attribute responsibility and causation with regard to HIV events. He proposes that we need to sharpen our analytic focus on what these framing devices do; their performativity - that is, their full range of worldly implications and effects. His primary examples are the criminal law and the randomized control trial. He argues that these institutions operate as framing devices: they attribute responsibility for HIV events, and externalize other elements and effects in the process. Drawing on recent work in science and technology studies as well as queer theory, he sets out an analytic frame that may help clarify a new role for HIV social research. Attentiveness to the performative effects of these framing devices is crucial, he suggests, if we want better to attend to the global HIV epidemic.