A mine sweeper or art? It's both.
The first time curators from New York's Museum of Modern Art e-mailed David Fine, he promptly hit the delete button. CyTerra, the company Fine runs, makes high-tech equipment used by US military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan; the company is based in Orlando, with offices in Waltham. Fine figured the request -- to include the company's handheld mine sweeper, the AN/PSS-14, in an upcoming design exhibition -- had to be a prank. But when the e-mail arrived for a third time, Fine, CyTerra's CEO, decided to make a phone call. MoMA wasn't kidding. The detector is now part of the recently opened show ''Safe: Design Takes on Risk." Fine spoke by phone from Orlando recently.
Q: It is art, you know.
A: MoMA calls it art. I call it good engineering.
Q: But here in Boston, we've had a show at the Museum of Fine Arts on cars. The Guggenheim did one with motorcycles.
A: When you describe cars as a form of art, I can begin to understand. But in the case of a mine detector, you make it functional above all else. It's got to survive very hot temperatures. A soldier has to be able to fold it up.
Q: You're not thinking, hmm, what colors should we use?
A: That doesn't come up, though you don't want something shiny that will reflect the sun. On the other hand, putting it in those terms, it is a sleek-looking system.
Q: The AN/PSS-14 sounds so official. It really looks like a standard metal detector, something you might see an old guy at the beach using to find coins.
A: The problem is that those old detectors find every little piece of metal, and when a soldier finds the metal, he doesn't know if he's found a plastic mine or a bullet casing. As a result, it takes forever to clear a field. With this, we use a metal detector as well as radar.
Q: That gives me an idea for another show. How about an exhibit made up of things found with a metal detector?
A: If you're an anthropologist, you can find a lot of stuff with it. Bones or pottery. We built one unit for the Greek government, and they found so much stuff with it in such a short time, we only sold one.
Q: Does the one at MoMA work?
A: No. It doesn't have real electronics in it. We would not be able to put it in the hands of anyone without the authorization of the government.
Q: Did you still need permission to even have the nonworking detector in the show?
A: Yes. I sent a copy of the e-mails to the US government, and they read them and couldn't quite believe it. But then they said, 'Great.' They wanted to know when they could see the exhibit.
Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com. 
