Dr. Birgitta Burger part 2

C.S.: And looking back on your experiences so far, which experiences could you benefit the most from in your career so far?

B.B.: Uhh, I guess just in a way to having the chance to do my PhD in the environment I was in. It was quite a big group and a lot of different kinds of skills were available. So that was nice. There was usually someone that could help. And then generally being able to meet and work with different people, not only in Jyväskylä but also in the whole community. And that the 'big guys' are just also normal people who are very nice and very approachable. That's something I realised as well, that usually everyone is approachable and can be asked or just talked to.

C.S.: So as an advice for younger researchers: don't be afraid to asked professional researchers or the 'big ones'.

B.B.: Anyone in the field. Just, exactly, be brave, go up to them and also believe in yourself. And even if you are wrong or haven't understood everything because we can't know everything. Just ask and be open to things.

C.S.: Then the next question, what do you think about the development of Systematic Musicology in recent years and the trend it's going for the future?

B.B.: I think it's quite a vibrant field. At the moment it's really hard because of Covid and the lack of conferences and the lack of exchange and me just recently getting back to Germany. I don't really feel that I am in the scene at the moment. Of course I am, but it feels a bit remote.

But I think there is a lot of research happening on different kinds of topics and of course, trends are a bit difficult due to Covid because it's unclear what comes after or what we can do with Covid and after Covid. But taking the Covid research that has emerged it could be that the future direction goes even more into the uses of music in general and wellbeing and also therapeutic use. So Covid might bring some possibilities in that direction on how to positively/negatively use music in terms of mental wellbeing. Or also physical wellbeing as well because I miss the gym and other kinds of sports. :) So maybe music can do something there as well. So that might actually bring new trends and topics for the future.

C.S.: Yeah, that's a good point and an important point. I just thought also of music technology. Since musicians can't do any concerts in presence of an audience. So they have to do it remote as well if they do something.

B.B.: That's true. Especially the technology isn't quite there yet for at least bigger ensembles or orchestras to rehearse for example via zoom. Yeah, maybe that's also something where music technology could do well in the future.

C.S.: I tried it once and it was really difficult to record your voice yourself using a demo version and then to combine all the voices in one video. It was really difficult.

B.B.: Yeah, I can imagine.

C.S.: You already mentioned the pandemic. How much does the pandemic affect your work?

B.B.: Well, a lot. First of all, I work in a project that does experimental research with people so nope, all the things we had planned didn't work out. We had a few data collections lined up and pretty much nothing of it worked. I got one data collection with two people done as kind of a pilot study. But obviously I had planned on a big mocap study. That's definitely affecting. So now we have changed and adapted plans and do online experiments which we haven't done before because we also gather other participants' data meanwhile, like eye tracking or tapping data, that you can't really do reliably remotely. In that sense that has affected a lot. And also just the whole way of working is different: working from home, not seeing the other project researchers and colleagues, so communication is quite limited, small talk is just gone and this social feeling of togetherness or working on the same things is not happening. Video conferences can't really help there. They feel much more of an effort and difficult than for example just meeting up for lunch and talking about whatever things. These kinds of support conversations in between are missed.

C.S.: Someday they will be back.

B.B.: Yeah, then the project is over ... ;) That's the other thing. The lifetime of projects is limited so that creates insecurity as well because you have to get things done, especially for the PhD students as they need to finish but it's much more difficult now to achieve the goals. The ERC has been quite strict on the deliverables, which doesn't make it easier, either.

C.S.: Okay, that's tough. Well, I hope you can manage it still.

B.B.: We have to.

C.S.: How long is the project still going? And how much work is left?

B.B.: Until the end of March next year, so a bit more than a year. We don't count the work that as such because we can't do what was proposed in the application. We have planned contact studies with 50 people and it's clear that we can't do them at the moment. We will instead do online studies and work on related topics.

C.S.: Well, good luck with the project.

B.B.: Thanks.

C.S.: And the last question, despite all the negative consequences caused by the pandemic, do you also see chances for the field of Systematic Musicology and SysMus in particular?

B.B.: Well, one thing I already said about the Covid research. It might cause some rethinking on relevant topics in the field, let’s see. But there might be some rethinking happening on how to do collaborations and also how to form collaborations because at the moment it's harder to get new collaborations or to start networking. I have done most of my networking via conferences, so pretty much everybody I know I got to know on conferences or related. Also maybe some new forms of conferencing might emerge or are already emerging, the whole remote conferencing for instance. Although I hope it's not going to be the main way of conferencing in the future but obviously there are positive aspects about it, and it helps people to actually attend who couldn't attend otherwise. In that sense technological developments might change how things evolve in the future also for researchers with less funding opportunities. Otherwise, maybe SysMus could be valuable for supporting the situation of mostly PhD students – maybe more than Master's students – in finishing their PhD, for instance working on how to make conditions better. I am not quite sure how we can do that but for instance with blog posts on relevant topics, like how to conduct an online experiment or collecting tips for getting their research done or providing networks. So maybe there are things to do for us. :)

C.S.: Sounds good, sound like some positive outcomes, let's see. Okay, then we are at the end of the interview. So thank you, it was really nice.

B.B.: Alright, thank you for the opportunity.