Epilepsy is a neurological condition defined by time; it is characterized by a lifelong tendency for recurrent, unpredictable, and unprovoked seizures, during which people lose control over parts of body-mind function. Diagnosing seizures involves using electroencephalograms to represent and classify brain waves in relation to clock time. Drawing upon ethnographic fieldwork in a North American teaching hospital, this paper shows that as neurologists learn to diagnose seizures, they internalize clock time norms for normal and abnormal brain waves. The paper demonstrates how these temporal norms work to assign a set of aesthetics to brain waves: patterns that conform to clock-time norms are beautiful, whereas hard-to-classify patterns are ugly. These aesthetic judgments follow diagnostically complex patients in future hospital visits, who become known, for instance, as “the patient with the ugly EEG.” The paper critiques this ascription of labels to patients and situates the role of the electroencephalogram's clock time in this predicament. It concludes with a speculative design project that reorients the relationship between temporality and embodiment by using the heartbeat as a situated and co-produced alternative to the standardized and invariant clock. Ultimately, the paper argues that the aesthetics of medical technology are fundamental to clinical care, thereby opening up new directions for research at the intersection of critical time studies and disability studies.

中文翻译：

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癫痫美学：癫痫诊断中的时间制度和医疗技术

癫痫是一种由时间定义的神经系统疾病；它的特点是终生有反复、不可预测和无端癫痫发作的倾向，在此期间人们会失去对身心功能部分的控制。诊断癫痫发作涉及使用脑电图来表示和分类与时钟时间相关的脑电波。根据在北美教学医院进行的人种学实地调查，本文表明，随着神经学家学习诊断癫痫发作，他们内化了正常和异常脑电波的时钟时间规范。该论文展示了这些时间规范如何为脑电波分配一组美学：符合时钟时间规范的模式是美丽的，而难以分类的模式是丑陋的。这些审美判断会在未来的医院就诊中遵循诊断复杂的患者，例如，他们被称为“脑电图丑陋的病人”。该论文批评了这种将标签归于患者的做法，并指出了脑电图时钟时间在这种困境中的作用。它以一个推测性的设计项目结束，该项目通过使用心跳作为标准化和不变时钟的定位和共同生产的替代品来重新定位时间性和具体化之间的关系。最终，本文认为医疗技术的美学是临床护理的基础，从而为关键时间研究和残疾研究的交叉点开辟了新的研究方向。它以一个推测性的设计项目结束，该项目通过使用心跳作为标准化和不变时钟的定位和共同生产的替代品来重新定位时间性和具体化之间的关系。最终，本文认为医疗技术的美学是临床护理的基础，从而为关键时间研究和残疾研究的交叉点开辟了新的研究方向。它以一个推测性的设计项目结束，该项目通过使用心跳作为标准化和不变时钟的定位和共同生产的替代品来重新定位时间性和具体化之间的关系。最终，本文认为医疗技术的美学是临床护理的基础，从而为关键时间研究和残疾研究的交叉点开辟了新的研究方向。