Dr. Vriens is leading a multiphase project anchored at the U of T TAPiR Lab investigating improved documentation practices for musical scores involving technology. Funded by a SSHRC Insight Development Grant and a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, this project asks: What descriptive and documentary features do music performers need in a new electroacoustic score to ensure the work’s performability after the originally mandated technology has become unavailable?

As testbeds in which to explore these questions, Vriens has commissioned seven new works for solo violin and obsolete electronics. Phase 1, supported by additional funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, commissioned works from Tsz Long Yu and James Hamilton Lowrie, focusing on the integration of CRT televisions, fishing cameras, cassette tapes, radio, and low-pressure sodium lighting. Premiered in May 2025 as the culminating event of a Canadian Music Centre residency, these pieces constituted important pilot tests and provided important guiding principles for the integration of obsolete technologies in new concert pieces.

Phase 2, ongoing from 2025 through 2027, commissioned five further works from composers Amy Brandon, Robert Humber, Lily Koslow, Wesley Shen, and Steven Webb, incorporating a range of technology from vintage synthesizers through radios, tape loops, printing calculators, and slot machines. A premiere of these works will take place on June 20, 2026 at Walter Hall.

Outcomes from Phase 2, in addition to recordings of the new works, will include academic disseminations of findings and, in collaboration with the Canadian Music Centre and Canadian League of Composers, the dissemination of a  practitioner-oriented open access guide to share principles of future-oriented documentation with Canadian composers and performers who can employ them in the composition, rehearsal, and performance stages of newly written works.