by senior contributor Brendan Kownacki
Photo credit: Brendan Kownacki
The dictionary defines the word ingenuity as “the quality of being clever, original, and inventive,” so you sort of get a good idea that you’re going to see clever and inventive names and ideas at a dinner dedicated to Ingenuity, and the American Ingenuity Awards from Smithsonian Magazine were no disappointment.
David Caruso, Editor-in-Chief, Smithsonian Magazine
There were some obvious stars in the crowd at the ceremony, held at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC, but it would be a shame not to look at all the bold and original achievements that led to this year’s honorees.
Aziz Ansari and “Master of None” co-creator, Alan Yang
Aziz Ansari was the 2016 honoree for performing arts and his humor is a force that follows him when he walks into a room. Many people follow Ansari’s edgy stand up material and observations on life, and more still grew to love him as Tom Haverford on Parks and Rec, but this year’s ingenuity award was a nod to his Netflix series “Master of None.” Along with co-creator Alan Yang, Ansari was able to create a relatable slice-of-life series that has amassed a major following. “We were just thinking it would be like a hangout show, à la ‘Seinfeld,’” Ansari told Smithsonian Mag. “Let’s make it funny, let’s make it entertaining, and on the level that we would have with our friends.”
Kyle MacLachlan
Also being honored from Hollywood was legendary director David Lynch. Lynch was unfortunately struck with Bronchitis and unable to attend the ceremony but Skyped in to join presenter Kyle MacLachlan. Many will remember MacLachlan from the Lynch drama Twin Peaks, which is set to return to TV in 2017. Lynch’s cinematic mastery was on the back burner for the night though as he was being honored with the education award for the work of his foundation to promote meditation in schools.
Jeff Bezos (center) with his parents Jackie and Miguel Bezos
Washington Post owner and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos got the technology award for advances in space exploration and brought his parents to the gala. “Space Archaeologist” Sarah Parcak was honored for her work bringing people closer to history, Marc Edwards and LeeAnne Walters were celebrated for their work to uncover the Flint water crisis and director M. Night Shyamalan took a break from penning mysteries and thrillers to present the youth award to a young man named Christopher Gray. Gray created an app called Scholly to help pre-screen scholarship opportunities for students to help them get through their education. Ingenuity on parade.
OK Go
The visual arts award of the night went to the band OK Go, who continue to push the boundaries of how music is presented with their off-the-wall music videos. They shared the award with music video director Trish Sie, who is actually the sister of OK Go front man Damian Kulash.
M. Night Shyamalan
The stand-out group of the evening though was not given to a group of movie stars or even names you’ve likely ever heard of. The Physical Sciences award went to Kip Thorne, Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish, and Ronald Drever, for proving Einstein’s theory of the existence of gravitational waves in the universe. Presented with a special video message from Stephen Hawking explaining the accomplishment, it became clear that these four will find themselves in text books but never be the stars that they truly are, for proving a 100-year-old astrophysics theory that brings all of science leaps closer to understanding black holes, the forces of the universe and the origins of the solar system.
Go behind-the-scenes with OK Go and get a sense of what inspired their famous videos:
