Conn College holds its Arts and Technology Symposium

They said the magic word: avatar.

With all due apologies to James Cameron, though, the avatars that will greet people at Connecticut College's arts and technology symposium won't be blue.

These avatars will, though, track and record visitors' movements.

If avatars don't strike your techno fancy, maybe the robots constructed of recycled material will.

There's lots more, too, at this 12th Biennial Arts and Technology Symposium, "Revolution: Technology as Change." It runs from today through Saturday at Conn, and it brings together artists, performers and media specialists.

The public can join in the techno fun by seeing such things as a performance by the Da Capo Chamber Players, along with interactive installations and computer animations.

The keynote address, evening concerts and exhibits are free and open to the public. For more information, visit http://cat.conncoll.edu/sym2010.

TODAY

"INTERACTIVE INSTALLATIONS," 5 p.m., Cummings Arts Center Galleries.
Exhibits will include the aforementioned robots and avatar; an interactive wireless art exhibition; and an Internet interpretation of a 1929 silent film.

"MULTIMEDIA PERFORMANCE" featuring Conn students, 8 p.m., Evans Hall.

FRIDAY

"FLUID INTERFACES: BLENDING THE PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL WORLDS," 9 a.m., Evans Hall; keynote address by Pattie Maes, associate professor of media technology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"AUDIO AND VIDEO SCREENING," 4 p.m., Fortune Hall, Cummings Arts Center.

"MULTIMEDIA PERFORMANCE," 8 p.m., Palmer Auditorium; includes Kinodance Company and "Paraguay," an experimental music and theater performance.

SATURDAY

DA CAPO CHAMBER PLAYERS, 8 p.m., Evans Hall; featuring electro-acoustic media and dance works.