Mark Frauenfelder

Mark Frauenfelder is a research director of Institute for the Future and co-founder of Boing Boing. He’s the founding editor-in-chief of MAKE, the only magazine exclusively devoted to do-it-yourself projects. He’s the founding editor-in-chief of Wired.com, and was an editor at Wired magazine and Wired Books. He was Playboy magazine’s technology columnist for three years. He is also the editor-in-chief of Cool-Tools.org, a tool review site with roots connected to the Whole Earth Catalog.

As a maker of things, Mark has built cigar box guitars, skateboards, electronic musical instruments, chicken coops, kinetic sculptures, and robotic monkeys that keep cats from jumping on furniture. He has conducted workshops that teach people how to make sauerkraut, program Arduino microcontrollers, solder circuitboards, build vibrating toothbrush cars, and construct mandolins from tuna cans.

Mark is also an artist and designer, and his work has appeared in group and solo gallery exhibitions throughout the United States. He designed Billy Idol’s “Cyberpunk” CD cover, video box, and print advertisements.

He has appeared on The Colbert Report (twice) and the Martha Stewart Show, and has written for The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Popular Science, Business Week, The Hollywood Reporter, Wired, and other national publications.

Mark is the author of:
— The Happy Mutant Handbook: Mischievous Fun for Higher Primates

— Mad Professor: Concoct Extremely Weird Science Projects

— The World’s Worst: A Guide To The Most Disgusting, Hideous, Inept, And Dangerous People, Places, And Things On Earth

— The Computer: An Illustrated History

— Rule the Web: How to Do Anything and Everything on the Internet — Better, Faster, Easier

— Made by Hand: My Adventures in the World of Do-It-Yourself

— Maker Dad: Lunch Box Guitars, Anti-Gravity Jars and 22 Other Incredibly Cool Father-Daughter DIY Projects

Mark Frauenfelder smiling in front of a green background with black glasses
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