Discovering strange events in empty spaces: The role of multimodal practice and the interpretation of paranormal events

•Paranormal experiences are shared and understood collectively through verbal and multimodal activities.•Positioning an event in empty space through verbal and multimodal activities has the potential to imply transgressive qualities towards it.•Features of an event are established through the negotiation of verbal and visual action.

This article examines how empty space may be used as an interactional resource to see, understand and categorise events as potentially paranormal. By drawing upon video data of groups noticing and negotiating their experiences of a strange event, this study examines the verbal and multimodal practices used to negotiate the status of these events (as either paranormal or normal). It is argued that through interactional practices individuals render certain events in the local milieu noticeable, and through negotiation of the features and location of an event in empty space, imply transgressive qualities towards them.