Trip Out! Symposium

Trip Out! Symposium. Media and Altered States, March 4th and 5th, 2026. University of Toronto Mississauga. Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology.

Date: March 45, 2026
Location: University of Toronto Mississauga and St. George

Overview

Join us at the third annual ICCIT graduate-faculty research symposium as we consider human relationships to technologies of altered perception. At Trip Out!, we'll think with and through the trip—a timespace marked by a stumble, a tip into vertigo, a virtual reality, augmented perception, drug consumption, madness, misperception, and/or hallucination. The trip is a shift in “affective attentiveness” (Cichosz, 2014) or a “journey to new realms of consciousness” (Leary, 1963), and the technologies of tripping include airplanes, acid tabs, trance-inducing meditation, white rabbits, and VR headsets, to name only a few. Trip Out! brings together scholars and students whose work focuses on perception as technological affordance and reality as already-altered, mediated experience.

Speakers & Activities

Trip Out! will feature presentations from a diverse roster of invited speakers. These include Aleena Chia (Goldsmiths, University of London), Neşe Devenot (Johns Hopkins University), Justin Jennings (Royal Ontario Museum), Larissa Soares Carneiro (Duke University), Maria Cichosz (University of Toronto), Jeremy Tirrell (University of North Carolina Wilmington), and Kate Maddalena (University of Toronto Mississauga).

University of Toronto PhD students will deliver 5-minute "theory pill" talks that target a number of concepts relevant to the symposium theme. These students will include Alice Nahyeon Kim, Grayson Lee, Kaushar Mahetaji, Julia Parke, Mathew Iantorno, Darsana Vijay, Julia Costanzo, Upasana Bhattacharjee, Andrew Wiebe, Ayla Morland, and Seungwoo Baek.

Registration

Pre-Conference Evening

Date: Wednesday, March 4
Time: 6:00pm–8:00pm
Location: Centre for Culture and Technology, 39A Queen's Park Crescent East, Toronto, ON

Register for Curating Psychedelic Media.

Curating Psychedelic Media, an evening discussion with curator Justin Jennings of the Royal Ontario Museum, with a screen tour of the museum's upcoming exhibition, Psychedelics.

Trip Out! Symposium

Date: Thursday, March 5
Time: 9:30am–4:20pm
Location: Collaborative Digital Research Space (MN3230), University of Toronto Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Road, Toronto, ON

Register for the Trip Out! Symposium.

See full schedule below. Lunch will be served.

Full Symposium Schedule (March 5)

9:30am9:45am: Coffee & Snacks


9:50am10:00am: Opening Words & Land Acknowledgement

Presented by Tero Karppi


10:00am11:30pm: Session 1 (Tripping Out)

Moderated by Sam Pizelo

Faculty Presentations

  • Aleena Chia

Theory Pills

  • Alice Nahyeon Kim (Hallucination)
  • Grayson Lee (Bullshido)
  • Kaushar Mahetaji (Drift)
  • Julia Parke (Grind)

11:30am–12:45pm: Lunch


1:00pm–2:30pm: Session 2 (Touching Grass)

Moderated by Anjali Nath

Faculty Presentations

  • Maria Cichosz
  • Jeremy Tirrell & Kate Maddalena

Theory Pills

  • Mathew Iantorno (Foraging)
  • Darsana Vijay (Tolerance)
  • Julia Costanzo (Withdrawal)
  • Upasana Bhattacharjee (Pleasure)

2:30pm–2:45pm: Snack Break


2:45pm–4:10pm: Session 3 (Guided Trips)

Moderated by Leon Lu

Faculty Presentations

  • Neşe Devenot
  • Larissa Carneiro

Theory Pills

  • Andrew Wiebe (Ungrounding)
  • Ayla Morland (Roadblock)
  • Seungwoo Baek (Danger)

4:10pm–4:20pm: Closing Remarks