What does intimate technology mean to you? Probably the word "intimate" makes you think about sex and personal relationships, while "technology" suggests modern inventions and designs. In his video "All My Clothes", Rick van de Dood reminds us of a more straightforward example of intimate technology: the clothes we wear every day.


We have worn clothes since we first donned bearskins as cavemen, and yet we usually don’t put much thought, care, or attention into our choices. We pull a shirt on at the beginning of the day, we roll our socks into a ball, we hide our clothing away in a closet. Clothes, so closely in contact with our bodies, are an intimate technology we rarely think of as intimate.


"All My Clothes" puts these everyday objects in a very different light. We see clothes - not luxurious accessories and dresses, but the clothes we wear for ordinary work and leisure - floating against an idyllic sky-blue background. Spinning and twirling through the sky, the clothes separated from their owners appear to be dancing. Their movements are different form the movements of the humans who usually wear them, but are expressive in their own way. We begin to think of this most intimate technology, not only as a collection of functional objects, but also as freely creative and independent.


How does van de Dood’s movie make you feel? Are there other intimate technologies that, separated from the user, seem to take on a life of their own? Watch the video below.



Credit: All My Clothes by Rick van de Dood (NL)

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