Interpreting the British Museum’s Parthenon Galleries through a visual-spatial language (British Sign Language)

This paper presents the results of a decade-long exploration of how using a visual-spatial language, such as British Sign Language (BSL), shapes our engagement with visual and material culture in ways distinct from using spoken languages.  I will introduce a select range of BSL linguistic features, such as iconicity, role shift (where a signer ‘becomes’ more than one character in a narrative), and placement and the grammatical use of space.  These will be illustrated using commissioned videos with a Deaf actor (https://mansil.uk/parthenon-bsl-clips).   While few art historians or archaeologists may learn their local sign language, this project has shed light on how a spoken language might be framing our articulation of art appreciation to a greater degree than previously realised.  It is argued that the choice of communication mode shapes how we frame the world, art, and artefacts more than is generally assumed.