Introduction: from broken systems towards extended possibilities of XR technologies

The ‘Extending Realities’ Special Issue originated out of the desire to open discussion between industry and academia around the status of extended reality (XR) in Australia today. Our intention is to generate a dialogue that is community-focused, speculative and reflective, engages a range of communities, and is both forward-moving and backwards-turning. Because of this, we explore critical language and perspectives that are emerging around XR so that we might mark a provisional location point, or at least a record of where some of us think we are–both within the XR community of makers, and within academic communities of scholars and researchers. Our focus on community building was integral to the inception of this project, which traces back to an Extending Realities Forum convened in Melbourne, Australia. Hosted by the editors of the ‘Extending Realitie’ Special Issue and Deakin University in 2021, we invited industry leaders, researchers, and practitioners working across diverse disciplines and creative practices from games, performance, expanded photography, virtual reality, augmented reality and roles within the sector including academics, creators, producers and funders, to participate in discussions on the challenges and opportunities of extended reality production in the nation today.