Digital/human encounter is explored through a suite of experiences that comprises common/room, an art installation that uses various modes of Extended Reality (XR) to support social engagement and generate connections with a view to reversing processes of societal atomisation and intercultural discomfort (racism). common/room is exhibited as an informal dining room where each table hosts a distinct experience, designed to bring people together for discussion, active listening and considered

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... onse. Although XR is my tool, real encounter is my aim. Each experience, be it using 360 3D video in a headset or projection, or AR, simulates informal face-to-face encounters in the setting of a domestic kitchen or dining room. Visitors to one such experience, First Contact - Take 2, are invited to sit at a dining table where, by wearing a head-mounted Augmented Reality display, they encounter a volumetric representation of an indigenous Maori woman seated opposite. She speaks out of her culture that has refined collective endeavour and relational psychology over millennia.