Interview with Steve Maher – "Having the whole world at one's finger tips has very much changed how we listen to music but also how we reach out for it."

Steve Maher is an award winning visual and relational artist from Limerick, Ireland based in Helsinki, Finland and working throughout Europe, Russia and North America. He is an Independent researcher, writer, Inventor, Tolkien scholar, curator and artist. 

 
Maher works across a broad range of topics, at the core of Maher’s practice is the exploration of cultural artifacts and rituals. In this mindset, Maher invented the Heavy Metal Detector.
“Heavy Metal Detector” is a cross-between a walk, workshop and a performance. Using customised metal detectors that have been hacked to play pre-recorded Heavy Metal music, Maher leads tours with the detectors. We sat down with Steve Maher to have a chat with him about his “Heavy Metal Detector”. 
Hi Steve! Thank you so much for making time for us to chat a little bit more about your very inspiring artwork “Heavy Metal Detector”. Now let’s dive into the topic immediately. How did you come up with the idea of the “Heavy Metal Detector”?
Steve Maher I was working on proposals for different open call projects, I had an idea called Heavy Metal Elevator 2014, which comprised of a audio track sample that was triggered by infrared detector inside and elevator. Every time the door opened and people where standing there, a loud track would play. I had this featured at an exhibition called Incubarte 14 in Valencia in Spain. To this day I am not sure if they even displayed the art work properly. It was very difficult to get my materials back from them afterwards, no-one answering emails. From what I gather, they went through a restructuring during the festival. Feeling a little bit irritated by the whole thing I shelved the project for a little while.
I saw an opportunity for a calendar of event sin Maunula called M-Cult. I rethought the structure of the project and how to make it more participatory as opposed to installation based. Then the name hit me, it seemed obvious. I quickly researched if anyone had made the same thing. They hadn’t, but those are often the best ideas, so I followed that gut feeling and developed the project.
What has been your most important goal to reach with Heavy Metal Detector? 

You mentioned “Heavy Metal Detector” is a participatory project, in fact it is a walking tour. What can visitors except from taking a tour with the Heavy Metal Detector? 
Steve Maher They can expect to get a good healthy half hour walk, while listening to a selection of locally sourced metal and hard rock music. They can expect to interact with their environment through a new mode of sensory input, facilitated by the customised metal detectors.

So more specifically about the tour, does the detector connect a specific location to a specific music piece? Or is the music played randomly?

Steve Maher The music featured on the detectors is practically a playlist, as the user interfaces with the detector, detecting metal in the environment, a teensy 3.5 micro-controller affects the mute state of a streaming playlist. It’s randomized by the degree at which the participant detects metal.

Steve Maher I believe that today we face a really broad and eclectic range of music. While this is great, in that it means there are a broader range of experiences. The traditional choice of limited experiences that maybe I experienced in my youth is disappearing.
There is less of desire to seek out something unique or to embrace a subculture like in the second half of the last century. Back then you had to seek out the unique, today young people have literally everything offered on a plate, which means in the end they greet everything the same, it all levels out.