spotlighting the top 10 videos of 2022

Throughout the year, designboom has covered numerous projects in the fields of architecture, art, design, and technology, presented through the format of moving image. From an impressive time-lapse video by Mr. Doodle taking us on his Doodleland in Kent (a fully covered house in his black and white cartoonish stamp) to a stop motion animation by DARIUSTWIN with a cowboy skeleton traveling around California through magical portals, the short movies grabbed us, and, more importantly, designboom readers’ imagination over the past 12 months.

Continuing our annual round-ups of the year’s BIG stories, we look back at the TOP 10 videos featured on designboom in 2022.

NEW YORK SUNSHINE X DICKIES LAUNCH SUN DYED IN TEXAS APPAREL COLLECTION

New York Sunshine has teamed up with world-renowned workwear brand Dickies to launch a limited-edition apparel collection titled ‘SUN DYED IN TEXAS’. The newly unveiled series is the second portion of the collaboration between the famed apparel company and the New York-based art collective. The first portion was completed during the summer of 2021 when two temporary physical installations were set on a private piece of land within the arid landscape of Marfa. The project, which was constructed in June and demolished in September, featured a house-shaped sculpture and a billboard reading ‘JUST ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE’. Both pieces were wrapped in Dickies blue twill cloth, which progressively lost its original appearance due to the sun and weather conditions. This altered fabric was used to create the expansive fashion line, which includes pants, jackets, vests, shirts, socks, headwear, and more.

HYPNOTIC, AERIAL HYPER-LAPSE OF BURNING MAN 2022

After a two-year pandemic low, Burning Man returned to the Nevada Desert in August 2022, awashing the arid land in a psychedelic array of colors and light to celebrate the theme of ‘Waking Dreams.’ The annual, non-profit event gathers a global pool of artists, makers, and community organizers to build the ephemeral Black Rock City following the ten Burning Man principles; these include self-reliance, self-expression, and civic responsibility. An estimated 800,000 participants made it to the 2022 edition, transforming the desert into a dystopian, sci-fi landscape. San Francisco-based Filmmaker Jesse Chandler attended the festival with a goal: to capture a hyper-lapse with his drone, showing the hypnotic day-to-night unfolding of activities and lighting displays. Despite a few difficulties and a week cut short, Chandler’s final video, ‘Above the Dust,’ artfully portrays what Burning Man is all about.

THEO JANSEN’S WIND-POWERED STRANDBEESTS EVOLVE INTO FLYING CREATURES

Each spring, Theo Jansen’s impressive skeletal wind-powered structures take to the beach to provide an update on their evolutionary development. ‘During the summer I do all kinds of experiments with the wind, sand and water,’ said Theo Jansen. ‘In the fall, I grew a bit wiser about how these beasts can survive the circumstances on the beach. At that point I declare them extinct and they go to the bone yard.’ More than simply art objects, Jansen tries to embed actual life into his creations, with the ultimate goal of releasing them to live an independent life in large herds on the beach. He realizes this will not be possible in the near future, but he explained his goal a few years ago in an interview with National Geographic: ‘Give me a few million years and my Strandbeests will live completely independently’.

STELLA VAN BEERS TURNS A GRAIN SILO INTO A COMPACT TWO-LEVEL DWELLING

Alternative living meets creative upcycling for the ‘Silo Living’ project by design academy Eindhoven graduate Stella van Beers. Channeling her childhood fascination with these agricultural containers, which are a familiar sight in rural dutch landscapes, van Beers converted a seven-meter grain silo into a two-level watchtower residence. A spiral staircase and a two-leaf door were added to access the dwelling. Van beers also gave the silo a circular lookout porthole for rooftop views. Inside, the tiny silo home features a light-filled living area on the lower level and a sleeping area on the top floor, which is accessed by a ladder.

Z-TRITON LAUNCHES MARKET-READY VERSION OF ELECTRIC CAMPER, TRIKE AND BOAT COMBO

Latvian design studio Zeltini introduces ‘Z-triton 2.0’, a market-ready iteration of the amphibious e-camper. This newly unveiled model takes shape as an upgraded mobile unit combining house, boat, and tricycle all in one and offering the freedom to travel both over land and water. Z-triton aims to shift the way people engage with nature, especially in the current times with the worldwide pandemic and continuous desire to escape in a self-contained and autonomous way.

HANKOOK’S OMNIDIRECTIONAL WHEELBOT MOVES 360 DEGREES TO CHANGE THE FUTURE OF MOBILITY

Korean tire and technology company Hankook is trying to change the future of mobility by devising its omnidirectional tire WheelBot, a 360-degree moving tire that can be installed in vehicles. The robot wheel glides smoothly in any direction, and this might change the game of parking, for instance, since drivers who find parallel parking a challenge could just stop their car and move sideways into the limited parking space, no longer needing to furiously rotate the steering wheel to get a good angle. Hankook Tire says it has developed Wheelbot as the company’s first step toward using technology to urbanize its projects and vision for future mobility. Wheelbot uses robotics as its main driver, and the company assures that it can be driven and tested.

MR. DOODLE FULLY COVERS MANSION IN HIS OWN BLACK-AND-WHITE CARTOONISH SIGNATURE

British artist Sam Cox (known as Mr. Doodle) takes us on his Doodleland in Kent, a 12-room mansion fully covered in illustrative depictions of figures and symbols. The artist has shrouded every single piece of his house inside and outside — from the ceilings and walls to the kitchenware — in his characteristic black-and-white cartoonish signature. It took him two full years to complete this stunning project, which, as he mentioned, it was a childhood dream. For this ambitious project, the artist utilized 900 liters of white paint, 401 cans of black spray paint (for the outside), 286 bottles of black drawing paint (for the inside), and 2296 pen nibs. He only used four different-sized pens, which were refillable, and the nibs were replaceable, as the artist shared with the media.

MESMERIZING STOP MOTION WESTERN IS MADE FROM OVER 600 LIGHT PAINTINGS

A skeleton in a cowboy hat travels around California at night through magical portals, collecting precious gemstones under a starlit sky. This is the story of ‘fiat lux’, a light painting stop motion created by DARIUSTWIN, a company founded by artist Darren Pearson that specializes in light painting media and products. The stop motion animation is composed of 11 scenes, and it took a total of 686 light painting photographs to make. Each long exposure photo is taken straight from the camera and arranged side by side to create motion.

TESLA PRESENTS ITS CUTTING-EDGE ‘GIGAFACTORY’ IN BERLIN WITH A DIZZYING FPV DRONE TOUR

Tesla was born with an eye toward the future, and the company welcomes the opportunity to showcase this from nearly every aspect. From the smallest details of its tech-infused cars all the way up to its systems of manufacturing, the brand wants the world to know that it stands at the industry’s forefront. Now, the giant has released a video tour of its ‘Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg’ filmed with an FPV drone, demonstrating the process of creating its Model Y cars. Even in presenting its factory, Tesla must stand at the tech forefront.

GREGORY OREKHOV ROLLS OUT 250-METER-LONG RED CARPET ACROSS SNOWY RUSSIAN LANDSCAPE

‘Nowhere’ is a public art installation by artist Gregory Orekhov, in Malevich park in Moscow, Russia. The project extends as a 250-meter-long red carpet made out of polypropylene, stretching across the snowy forest. Surrounded by the vast natural landscape, the carpet seems like an endless line drawn on a white canvas. Walking along Gregory Chekhov’s red carpet, the visitors take on the role of a ruler. However, in the end, they are too fascinated by the surrounding landscape to pay attention to themselves. In this way, the artist emphasizes that the desire for fame, wealth, and power is insignificant when it comes to the greatness of the universe and nature. However, ‘nowhere’ cannot be limited to one interpretation. Through this installation, Orekhov asks the audience the following question: ‘Where is the red line, the forbidden line that must not be crossed under any circumstances?’