NAVIGATIONAL TOOLS

A Voyage amidst Mathematics and Music

It all started with Jury Duty. 

It appears to be the pleasure of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to make the exercise of one's civic duty as inconvenient as possible: why assign me to the Newton Courthouse five minutes from my home when they could send me to Medford, forty-five minutes away with the instructions to be there by 8 AM (which means an hour and a quarter in rush hour traffic)? 

So I'm up at 6 (ugh) and am advised by Waze that the best beeline includes buzzing through downtown Boston (arrgggghhh). Groggy from sleep and caffeine deprivation, I manage to negotiate the route, find a parking space and arrive at the courthouse as instructed, precisely 8 AM to find a bunch of my fellow citizens waiting patiently before the double glass doors ... which are locked (grrrr). After awhile, we're admitted to the building and are advised that we'll have to pass through a security check ... when the security personnel show up ... which they haven't ... yet. 

By now, I'm two and a half hours into aggravation and in the perfect frame of mind to do my part for the criminal justice system: LET'S JUST HANG EVERYBODY! 
Seated at last in the Jury Waiting Room, I'm wearily counting the members of the MAGA-capped contingent as they troop in (might as well hang them too!) when the woman seated next to me pulls out a pile of paper and a bunch of colored markers and sets about jotting down incomprehensible formulae in an elegant hand. 

"Umm ... what IS that?"

Turns out she's a mathematician and the intriguing notes she's composing, choosing a different color pen based for each section based on I-have-no-idea-what, constitute her homework.

"What will you do with it later?" I ask. Turns out she has no specific plans for it.
"Can I have it?"

A month and a half later, I receive a hefty envelope containing more than four hundred sheets of paper adorned with diagrams, proofs, questions, answers, theories and proposals. Hamill Gallery is delighted to present Navigational Tools, an installation inspired by the mathematics homework of Kristina Lando. Also featured are the musical notations (bass guitar) of Ethan Rider and a boat and a lighthouse, conceived and executed by Jose Ramon Bas and me. -Bobbi Hamill

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