Metal Detecting Is Art "More Than Machines"

"We Are More Than Machines, We Are Because We Feel"

Nowadays when people hear the word "Art" they instantly think of paintings hanging in galleries, others think of sculptures and if you visit the Tate Modern in London you'll get the chance to see some pretty bizarre installations that usually fall under the term "Modern Art". Art isn't just confined to galleries and exhibitions, it's all around us, it's perspective, the way we view the world. For me it comes in many forms, it's how you take influence from everything that you're exposed to and how that translates in the way you choose to express yourself. Many go through life with no concept of this because we're all wired differently, in many ways I wish I was one of these people because life would be a hell of a lot simpler.

My Train Of Thought

I started drumming at the age of 6 and by the time I was 13 I was earning a living playing in bands with guys 4 times my age, my life path was music, drums, poetry and writing. I didn't pick any of this, it picked me and it's been both a curse and a blessing. I wasn't taught by anyone, I taught myself, with a little help from my dad who was a fantastically unique person and drummer. I learnt from a very early age that any Art form has no rules, especially drums and music, it's free flowing and you soak up everything in your world and then translate it through an emotional response, which for me came out as drum beats rhythms and writing. 

Those that place rules on what I've mentioned want to try to pigeonhole each process. I find this usually involves taking all of the originality out of something so it fits into the safe and restricted boundaries of what we're made to believe is acceptable and "normal". I had one simple mantra in my head from the day I was born "Screw The System and Screw Education" The establishment wants you to memorise their bullshit "EXAMS" so you can live your life as "Lord Of Your Own Bird Cage". Don't get me wrong, I did what I had to do at school but I was under no illusion that you only really learn anything after leaving, life has a way of teaching you many things in a short space of time depending on the path you'd chosen to walk. You can keep it simple if you want, I chose to complicate it as much as I could, I simply followed my gut and went where the music took me, this led to major challenges and complications. Nothing is achieved settling for the safe and easy option.

We Exist In A Mind Prison

OK so at the age of 34 I had a mental breakdown that saw me in no end of troubles, music nearly killed me, nothing to do with drugs, it was to do with the relentless pursuit of the only thing that appeared real to me. It was when I walked away from it that my problems really started, all these years later at the age of 46, still heavily medicated to dumb me down I've managed to somehow survive but my reality is hazy at the best of times. "I Followed My Gut"... Right? so I feel I'm where I was destine to be at this point in time. HELL .... there's an art to living life and functioning, many do this without a thought, some of us find it a daily challenge, when I stepped away from drumming I literally had to learn to live a relatively normal life, I still haven't masted that. My world was pubs, rehearsal rooms, recording studios and venues, I've spent my life running away from the mundane and the "normal". I believe this is something that I'll never stop doing. Digging crap out the ground appears to be a major part of this process nowadays. Since my dad died nearly two years ago this coming January, metal detecting is something that now plays a huge role in my existence because he got me into it as a child. Notice I use the word "Metal" detecting, not treasure hunting.

If you can be bothered to read more I explain my hell here The Cell

I Digress ... 

For me personally, metal detecting is both an art form and escapism, for me to feel totally removed from the human race I needed to find a set of machines that no one else used, could use, or wanted to use. I had to connect with them in the same way I connected with my drums. I wanted to be able to tune them in the same way I tuned my drums. Understanding audio is an art within itself and I've explained in previous blogs that tuning drums ties in with this. You have to not only understand how to tune a drum but you need to know what you're listening for, this can't be taught, it's a sense not a science. If you try to make it a 'one size fits all approach', which companies have tried to do with gimmicky products, then you might as well give up because every single drum has it's own unique voice and it's your job to find it. I think audio based metal detecting is very similar to this because analog metal detectors have their own unique "voices" that, once mastered, tell you everything you need to know.

There's no art in numbers and machines that do everything for you, turn on and go in all its guises is a slow death of intuition. There's nothing to master when you're moving numbers up and down on the screen, there are no real settings just illusions of 'advanced features' that aren't 'advanced' in any way shape or form. You don't learn to draw or paint buying a 'paint by numbers book' in the same way you learn nothing about the true art of metal detecting digging 'by the numbers' and staring at a screen. Does It Matter If People Want To Turn On And Go? not at all, it's all about enjoyment, I'm simply explaining the way I see it and what I want to get out of it. I've explained before that we live in a soulless world, technology is wrecking music and art, technology as a whole is making society sterile in so many ways. I have no desire to participate in any of it, just for the record, I have nothing against anyone that does want to participate. We all live our lives the way that we want to, the only time I do have a problem is when people try to impose their views and thoughts upon you in an aggressive way. That goes for life in general and those belittling others for the machines they choose to use.

Some that watch my videos might feel like I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill because I'm digging endless trash with not much treasure to show for my efforts. Firstly the treasure will come, secondly I learn so much about my machines digging crap all day. Also I'm hitting some targets way out the range of other machines out there, there's an art to understanding all of this. I've explained before that it's all about the land your hunting, not all of us can get historic land so we have to make do with what we've got available to us. If I'm connected to my machines and I'm understanding everything I'm hearing then I couldn't care what I'm finding, this is a point I make a lot. Some people seem to think that if you're always digging good stuff then you must be an amazing detectorist, nope, that's all bollocks, these people have good land to hunt.

There's No Difference 

Not All Analog Machines Are The Same

If you have a good analog machine with just one tone, there's slight nuances within it that you start to understand. Ring pulls sound different to coins and foil sounds different to lead and so on .... due to the volume or punch of the audio, you can start to work out the depth of the target. This then dictates the size and depth of the plug you're going to dig. If you have a multi, or VCO based audio like I have on my Nexus MP V3 then you get given so many more clues to the targets you're digging. Combine that with the RGB/Light meter and you have everything you need to detect effectively. The only thing that stops it all coming together is your inability or unwillingness to learn what you're hearing. Due to the acute settings on the Nexus, you can modify the ground balance and threshold as you go, the machine will tell you when it needs to be adjusted but you have to know what to listen for. This reminds me of drums that fall out of tune, you can both hear and feel when this is happening so you simply modify the pitch. 

Audio can also tell you a lot about the size and shape of a target, on my V3 I can tell when I have a longer signal response. The VCO allows you to literally trace the shape but if you don't know what to listen for then you'll have no clue. If you want to understand these things then you have to learn them, watching videos and reading my blogs is one thing but you only learn by having the machine in your hand and putting the hours in. Me personally, I'm not happy until I feel 100% comfortable with what I'm doing, there's an art to what you're hearing, an art to how you swing the coil so the machines run at optimum levels all the time. There's an art to understanding the threshold, knowing what a false signal is compared to a really deep one, a tiny shallow target compared to a small deep one. The list goes on but it's all obtainable through the audio alone. 

Below is an excerpt from an old video called "Trust Your Ears" with Jeff Ocheltree, he looked after the drummer John Bonham from the band Led Zeppelin. Pay close attention to how he describes tuning the bass drum, it's exactly what I've been trying to explain, he feels it through the way it sounds and feels. You can't substitute intuition with technology, we will always be more than synthetic, digital machines, and that's across the spectrum of everything, not just metal detecting.