Chris Hackett (born April 15, 1972), 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, contributing editor for ''Popular Science'' magazine, and was the host of the

Science Channel Science Channel (often simply branded as Science; abbreviated to SCI) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel features programming focusing on science related to wilderness survival, engineering, manu ...

's television show '' Stuck with Hackett''. A 2012 article in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' entitled "''Building a better apocalypse''" 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.

The Madagascar Institute

In 1998, Chris Hackett founded the Madagascar Institute with colleagues Ryan O'Connor and Eric Singer. The Madagascar Institute is an affiliation of artists headquartered near the

Gowanus Canal The Gowanus Canal (originally known as Gowanus Creek) is a canal in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, on the westernmost portion of Long Island. Once a vital cargo transportation hub, the canal has seen decreasing use since the mid-20th ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York.

Television and Film

''Junkyard Wars''

Between 2002 and 2004, Hackett appeared on

TLC TLC may refer to: Arts and entertainment Television * ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2 * TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network ** TLC (Asia), an A ...

's ''

Junkyard Wars ''Scrapheap Challenge'' was a British television show where teams of contestants build a working machine that can perform a specific task, using materials available in a Wrecking yard, scrapyard. The series features teams of four or five membe ...

''. The show, which was the American version of the UK show ''

Scrapheap Challenge ''Scrapheap Challenge'' was a British television show where teams of contestants build a working machine that can perform a specific task, using materials available in a scrapyard. The series features teams of four or five members who are giv ...

'', 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''. 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 Discovery Channel is a Canadian exempt discretionary service owned by Rogers Sports & Media. Based of the U.S. cable network of the same name, the channel focuses primarily on programming related to nature, science, and technology. History D ...

show '' Breaking Point'' alongside Jonathan Tippett. 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 A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

, 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

's '' Stuck with Hackett''. 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.

''Mythbusters: The Search''

In January 2017 Hackett returned to the

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

''Popular Science''

Hackett writes a column for ''

Popular Science Popular science (also called pop-science or popsci) is an interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is more broad ranging. It may be written ...

'' 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'', was published by Weldon Owen in November 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hackett, Chris American artists American television hosts 1972 births Living people