Victoria Skogsberg is interested in the paranormal. Led by instinct and feeling her practice can be defined through an intrigue of the other side a preoccupation with the inexplicable oddities of life and experience.

Skogsberg remembers a dinner party at her parent's house when she was fourteen. A woman a friend of her mothers began to talk about her psychic abilities. Describing herself as a witch she explained her power to see and feel people's emotional states without prior knowledge or specific information. Believing she was psychic she felt she had been given the ability to heal those around her. On hearing this adult conversation, Skogsberg, instead of being sceptical, felt that she'd 'missed out on something big'.

What started with a distinct childhood memory for Skogsberg continues as an adult fascination, an intrigue with the unexplained. There is no doubt the paranormal is a controversial subject, often a media sensation. With David Blain and Derren Brown on national television there is no escaping our fascination with magic, hypnosis and the power of the mind. Of course, these theatrical displays from so called 'special' people are not new - healers, psychics and spiritualists have toured this and other countries for decades gaining eager and devout followings.

Skogsberg does not concentrate on the sensationalist aspects of the paranormal, (although she is addicted to anything weird on TV). Instead she has found her own path - one which might have seemed fated from the beginning. Born in Sweden, Skogsberg moved to Glasgow to study at Glasgow School of Art, and whilst on the Internet researching out of body experiences and telepathy, she discovered to her surprise that some of the answers, or at least a few more questions, lay an hour's journey away in Edinburgh.

The Koestler Parapsychology Unit of the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences at the University of Edinburgh was established in 1984 after a bequest from Arthur Koestler and his wife Cynthia. Koestler left the money after his controversial suicide in 1983, specifically for a chair in parapsychology at a British University. After it was turned down by Oxford, Cambridge, and Kings College London, Edinburgh stepped up and appointed the first chair of parapsychology in a British University - Dr Robert Morris. Morris has since passed away but the Unit will continue with its on-going research.

The Unit's aim is to 'conduct systematic and responsible research into the capacity attributed to some individuals to interact with their environment by means other than those currently understood by the scientific community'. They investigate 'psi' the neutral term given to a variety of 'paranormal' phenomena. The term encompasses a number of phenomena including extra-sensory perception (ESP), telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition and psychokinesis. Research into 'psi' is carried out as in orthodox science by setting up experiments with human or animal subjects in controlled laboratory conditions. There is also the possibility for field research, allowing investigators to record and analyse reports of paranormal phenomena where they occurred.

From this footage Skogsberg produced a series of drawings on a plan view of the entrance hall, and very simply drew on the direction of any movement in the space. On seeing this Morris produced another drawing, his depicted the movements of a poltergeist which had been recorded to be in the house. The similarities of the drawings, one scientific and one artistic, are uncanny. Both show a heavy density of lines at the entrance point and both are sketched in the same random off-hand manner on a plan view of a room. Both though are very different in how we perceive and understand them. Skogsberg's simple drawing has a rational explanation, whereas the presence recorded in Morris's drawing is harder to explain and harder to believe.

From these initial findings Skogsberg's work has continued to relate to experiments that take place at the Koestler Unit. She has entered into its world both academically by using its terminology, recreating its experiments and actively by participating and becoming the subject in investigations. She has also become a participator and performer in her own practice, allowing audiences to view her own states of being and consciousness. It is somehow her presence that allows us access to this parallel world. In 'Connecting' (2002), a small colour photograph, she recreates her position as 'receiver' in a popular 'psi' experiment which tests the possibility of receiving messages from the subconscious. Through her concrete presence in the image there lies the suggestion that Skogsberg has the ability to connect to this 'other' world.

In the 'real' experiment the 'receiver' is situated in a sound proof room, seated on a comfortable reclining chair wearing headphones and large black glasses. White noise is played continually through the headphones and the glasses, equipped with stroboscopic lights, are programmed to emit red flashes into the eyes which allow the body to relax. Skogsberg's re-creation contains similar props to the real experiment but takes place in what seems like a domestic environment excluding the apparatus and technical equipment we would assume to belong in such a place. Her image suggests that with the right state of mind and a few simple tools it may be possible for anyone to connect to a higher realm.

In the two installations, 'Are you there?' (2003) and 'On/Off' (2003) the viewer assumes position of 'receiver'. The first piece utilises Morse code, an early form of digital communication. In the video a shadowy figure holds a bright light which relays the message. Only those who understand this marginalised form of language are able to read the code but quite simply it says Are You There? In 'On/Off' the viewer enters a room and sits on a large leather arm chair opposite a monitor. The monitor is an image of the room they entered, the arm chair facing them - empty. After a few seconds the light goes off, plunging the room into darkness. As the eyes adjust to the darkness a shadowy figure appears in the arm chair, then the lights go back on. Participating in both these works we become aware of something just on the edge of our sensory perceptions. Something not quite real. Skogsberg seems to have created a third space in between our perceptions of reality and the stage of her installations - one which perhaps holds the key to our comprehension of these strange phenomena.

We are often asked in Skogsberg's work to suspend our disbelief, to accept rather than question. In the photograph 'Practising' (2004) Skogsberg levitates in a domestic space. As she floats suspended in mid air Skogsberg looks accomplished in this feat. The only suggestion of otherness is the strange light coming in through the window. This beautiful image seems to sum up Skogsberg's practice and illustrates one of the main interests in parapsychology - 'that the presumed capabilities and limitations of human potential have been misunderstood'. Conjuring up notions of spirituality and belief her work questions our abilities and forces us to wonder whether we could do this too. In truth this is not a simple task; parapsychologists have been attempting to become respected in the mainstream scientific community for years. The rift between their research and other scientific pursuits is wide and many professionals see parapsychology as an anathema to the pursuit of rational thought. What Skogsberg does is position the viewer in a number of differing ways, we are not always the observer, we are sometimes the participant. By changing our roles she is offering an overview of a complicated and controversial parallel universe.