Chris Hackett (artist)

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Chris Hackett
Stuck with Hackett.jpg
Chris Hackett
Other namesHackett
Occupationartist, television presenter, writer, fabricator, instructor

Chris Hackett, bornin New York City, is an artist, television presenter, writer, fabricator and instructor. He is a co-founder of the Madagascar Institute, an art combine located in Brooklyn, NY, [1] contributing editor for Popular Science magazine, [2] and was the host of the Science Channel's television show Stuck with Hackett . A 2012 article in The New York Times entitled "Building a better apocalypse" [3] described him as "something like a fabricator in chief for the Kings County D.I.Y. art set." In 2017 Hackett was featured as one of ten contestants on the TV show MythBusters: The Search which aired in early 2017 on the Science Channel.

Contents

The Madagascar Institute

In 1998, Chris Hackett founded the Madagascar Institute with colleagues Ryan O'Connor and Eric Singer. [4] The Madagascar Institute is an affiliation of artists headquartered near the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, New York.

Television and Film

Junkyard Wars

Between 2002 and 2004, Hackett appeared on TLC's Junkyard Wars . [5] The show, which was the American version of the UK show Scrapheap Challenge , gave teams 12 hours to gather materials from a junkyard, then use the materials to modify their vehicles for a race. Hackett acted as the Red Team Captain.

B.I.K.E.

In 2005, Hackett appeared in the documentary B.I.K.E. [6] The film was directed by Anthony Howard and Jacob Septimus. They spent over two years following an underground bike club known as the Black Label Bicycle Club to their meetings, parties, gatherings of the tribes in Amsterdam and Minneapolis, and the protests of the 2004 Republican National Convention, and filmed it all.

Breaking Point

In early 2010, he appeared on the Discovery Channel Canada show Breaking Point [7] alongside Jonathan Tippett. [8] The show premiered Monday, January 18, 2010, and was six episodes long. In each episode, the guys would investigate the limits of large scale everyday objects, such as armored limos, lobster boats, fuel tankers, buses, and more. Hackett and Tippett would conduct extreme tests on one of these objects until they found its breaking point. Then they would come up with ways to make the object safer and stronger.

Stuck with Hackett

Hackett was the star and host of the Science Channel's Stuck with Hackett . [9] The show premiered on August 18, 2011 as a nine part series, and could be watched on Thursdays at 10:30 PM. Each episode took place in a different abandoned location (rail yard, log cabin, grocery store dumpster, abandoned hospital, and so on). Hackett would turn the everyday trash, or "obtainium", as he calls it, that was left at the location into unexpected, functioning machines or mechanisms.

In January 2017 Hackett returned to the Science Channel' to star in MythBusters: The Search . Hackett was one of ten competitors who vied for a spot to be one of the next "Mythbusters" In episode 2 Hackett won the MVP award for his performance on the green team's paint-a-room-with-an-explosion device and he was eliminated after episode 6.

Author Credits

Hackett writes a column for Popular Science [10] in which he tackles problems with DIY engineering.

The Big Book of Maker Skills

Hackett's first book, The Big Book of Maker Skills: 334 Tools & Techniques for Building Great Tech Projects, [11] was published by Weldon Owen in November 2014.

Related Research Articles

Discovery Channel is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. As of June 2012, Discovery Channel was the third most widely distributed subscription channel in the United States, behind now-sibling channel TBS and The Weather Channel; it is available in 409 million households worldwide, through its U.S. flagship channel and its various owned or licensed television channels internationally.

<i>MythBusters</i> Australian–American science entertainment television program

MythBusters is a science entertainment television program, developed by Peter Rees and produced by Australia's Beyond Television Productions. The series premiered on the Discovery Channel on January 23, 2003. It was broadcast internationally by many television networks and other Discovery channels worldwide. The show's original hosts, special effects experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, used elements of the scientific method to test the validity of rumors, myths, movie scenes, adages, Internet videos, and news stories. The show was one of the most popular on Discovery Channel, being preceded only by How It's Made and Daily Planet, both in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jamie Hyneman</span> TV show host and special effects expert (born 1956)

James Franklin Hyneman is an American special effects expert who is best known as the former co-host of the television series MythBusters alongside Adam Savage, where he became known for his distinctive beret and walrus moustache. He is also the owner of M5 Industries, the special effects workshop where MythBusters was filmed. He is known among Robot Wars devotees for his robot entry Blendo, which was deemed too dangerous for entry in the competition. He is the inventor of the Sentry, an unmanned firefighting robotic vehicle. He is also one of the designers of the aerial cable robotic camera system Wavecam used in sports and entertainment events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Savage</span> American television host and special effects artist

Adam Whitney Savage is an American special effects designer and fabricator, actor, educator, and television personality and producer, best known as the former co-host of the Discovery Channel television series MythBusters and Unchained Reaction. His model work has appeared in major films, including Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and The Matrix Reloaded. He is the host of the TV program Savage Builds, which premiered on the Science Channel on June 14, 2019. He is currently most active on the platform Adam Savage's Tested which includes a website and a YouTube channel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tory Belleci</span> American television personality and model maker

Salvatore "Tory" Paul Belleci is an American television personality and model maker, best known for his work on the Discovery Channel television program MythBusters. He has also worked with Industrial Light and Magic on films including Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. The Federation battleships and podracers are some of Belleci's pieces. He is currently one of the three stars of Motor Trend's TV show Motor Mythbusters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kari Byron</span> American television host and artist

Kari Elizabeth Byron is an American television host, best known for her role on the MythBusters and White Rabbit Project series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grant Imahara</span> American engineer, roboticist, and television host (1970–2020)

Grant Masaru Imahara was an American electrical engineer, roboticist, and television host. He was best known for his work on the television series MythBusters, on which he designed and built numerous robots and specialized in operating computers and electronics to test myths.

The cast of the television series MythBusters perform experiments to verify or debunk urban legends, old wives' tales, and the like. This is a list of the various myths tested on the show, as well as the results of the experiments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessi Combs</span> American racer and TV personality (1980–2019)

Jessica Combs was an American professional racer, television personality, and metal fabricator. She set a women's land speed class record in 2013 and broke her own record in 2016. She was known as "the fastest woman on four wheels".

Breaking Point is a Discovery Channel Canada television show, hosted by Jonathan Tippett and Chris Hackett. Each episode was an hour long. The series was narrated by voice actor Graeme Spicer.

The cast of the television series MythBusters perform experiments to verify or debunk urban legends, old wives' tales, and the like. This is a list of the myths tested on the show as well as the results of the experiments. On March 16, 2011, Discovery Channel announced that the 2011 season would commence airing on April 6, 2011.

<i>Stuck with Hackett</i> Television series

Stuck with Hackett is a television show created and produced by Silver Machine for the Science Channel. It was commissioned as a pilot in 2010 and picked up as a nine-part series which began airing on August 18, 2011. It follows the trials and tribulations of artist Chris Hackett, founder of the Madagascar Institute, as he turns everyday trash into new and unexpected machines or mechanisms.

The cast of the television series MythBusters perform experiments to verify or debunk urban legends, old wives' tales, and the like. This is a list of the various myths tested on the show as well as the results of the experiments. The 2013 season premiered on May 1, 2013, returning to its Wednesday time slot.

The cast of the television series MythBusters perform experiments to verify or debunk urban legends, old wives' tales, and the like. This is a list of the various myths tested on the show as well as the results of the experiments. The 2014 season premiered on January 4, 2014, changing to a Saturday time slot. The show resumed in July, called a "new season" by the Discovery Channel. It then moved to a Thursday time slot.

Roadkill is an automotive-themed internet show produced by the MotorTrend Group. It is hosted by former Hot Rod Magazine editor David Freiburger and former technical staff editor Mike Finnegan. Roadkill is primarily filmed in Southern California, but many episodes have been filmed in other parts of the United States, and several episodes have been filmed in Australia and Canada.

<i>MythBusters: The Search</i> Reality competition series

MythBusters: The Search is a reality competition series that aired on the Science Channel. The series aimed to determine the hosts of a reboot of the Discovery Channel series MythBusters.

Jonathan Lung is an American television personality, industrial designer and graphic designer, known as a co-host on the Science Channel TV series MythBusters, which premiered November 15, 2017, and is a revival of the 2003 – 2016 incarnation of the program. Lung and his co-host Brian Louden won their hosting duties on the reality television competition series MythBusters: The Search, which aired in January and February 2017.

References

  1. "Home". madagascarinstitute.com.
  2. Hackett, Chris (February 18, 2014). "How I Transformed Sewage into Fresh Water". Popular Science. Retrieved January 14, 2017.
  3. Feuer, Alan (March 16, 2012). "Building a Better Apocalypse". The New York Times. Retrieved January 14, 2017.
  4. Porges, Seth (May 4, 2010). "Welcome to the Academy of Mechanical Arts and Ballistic Sciences". Popular Mechanics.
  5. "Junkyard Wars (2001)". Internet Movie Database.
  6. "B.I.K.E." Internet Movie Database.
  7. "Breaking Point". Discovery Channel. Archived from the original on December 4, 2010. Retrieved September 23, 2011.
  8. "Jonathan Tippett - Expanding the Human Experience Through Machines".
  9. "Stuck with Hackett". Science Channel.
  10. "Chris Hackett | Popular Science". www.popsci.com. Archived from the original on March 13, 2014.
  11. Hackett, Chris (November 4, 2014). The Big Book of Maker Skills (Popular Science). ISBN   9781616287269.