Welcome to another edition of THAT’S METAL!, in which we assemble photos, videos, and/or news items about things we think are metal, even though they don’t involve metal music. Today, we bring you a smorgasbord of eight items.

ITEM ONE

The first item is metal on many levels. It came my way thanks to a tip from GemmaD (whose wonderful blog is here). It concerns an artist from Mexico City named Pedro Reyes. Among many displays of creative exuberance, Reyes has been creating collections of musical instruments made from the remnants of weapons that the Mexican army seized from drug cartels and destroyed. The most recent collection is entitled Disarm and was made in collaboration with a team of musicians and Cocolab, a media studio in Mexico City.

The concept of creating instruments from weapons is itself brilliant, but get this: These mechanical instruments made from pistols, rifles, and shotguns can actually be programmed and operated via computers, making them capable of performing concerts. You can see photos of Disarm over at Lisson Gallery in London where it debuted earlier this year; I’ve included a few of them here. Many of the Disarm instruments will also be on display at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh starting October 5, 2013. After the jump, I’m also including a video interview of Reyes that allows you to see some of the instruments in action. Continue reading »