Armed with his recording equipment and headphones, Julian Saporiti, Ph.D., seeks out the echoes of empty oil tanks, the rattle of barbed wire fences and all manner of sounds that evoke the memory of a particular place—be it Texas, Wyoming, Alaska, Florida… Anywhere with a history that beckons.
These recordings become the foundation for the folk songs in Saporiti’s indie-folk project, No-No Boy, telling the stories that arise from the oral histories Saporiti collects in his research. His songs are familiar in the way that folk music tends to be—but the stories they tell are ones not so commonly heard. And for many audiences, these stories strike a chord.
Against the percussive beats he creates at the sites he visits, Saporiti’s No-No Boy debut album for Smithsonian Folkways, “1975,” lyrically recounts the experiences shared with him by Asian Americans across the United States and that which he has learned through his own Vietnamese American heritage. Saporiti released his second album with Smithsonian Folkways, "Empire Electric" in 2023.
Echoing the storytelling traditions of fellow Smithsonian Folkways artists Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, Saporiti’s work carves out space within the contemporary folk genre to engage topics including life in WWII Japanese internment camps as well as immigrant detention centers and refugee camps in 2020. Through these narratives, as well as other stories on the immigration experience, “1975” shows the complexities of what it means to become American.
Following his work on the No-No Boy project, Saporiti became the artist in residence at Hoyt Arboretum in Portland, Oregon, where he began to explore nature and shifted his focus toward themes related to environmental sustainability. Saporiti's recent work, which he colloquially refers to as 'tree songs,' focuses on the utility of songwriting in communicating biology and plant histories spanning millennia.
In his upcoming artist residency with the University of Florida College of the Arts’ Creative B Summer Program, Saporiti will apply his methodologies of translating research into song in partnership with UF’s Center for Arts in Medicine (CAM) and the School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences.
Throughout his residency in Gainesville, Saporiti will lead a series of classes, workshops and events for audiences both inside and outside of the university—shedding light on how he interweaves his skills as a musician and as a scholar as he explores the connections between local forests and ecological sciences through song.
“What is particularly exciting about No-No Boy’s work is that it demonstrates creative practice as research, as well as a means by which to translate and disseminate research,” says Colleen Rua, Ph.D., College of the Arts acting associate dean of research and strategic initiatives and associate professor in the School of Theatre and Dance.
“Creative practice,” Rua adds, “generates knowledge and allows for a hands-on approach to nuanced understandings of concepts, cultures, and experiences. Creative practice research often allows makers and their audiences to communicate shared experience. The Center for Arts in Medicine has been a leader and innovator in this field and in our own communities.”
The intersection of creative practice, research and health at the Center for Arts in Medicine
UF CAM academic program specialist, Brandon Telg, attended an evening of music and dialogue with No-No Boy at Heartwood Soundstage in November 2024. The event was hosted by MusicGNV, Pulp Arts and the UF Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship (CAME), and was sponsored by the UF Center for the Humanities in the Public Sphere with support from the Rothman Fund.
"That was when I really came to understand the connection between his research and his music. I had been a fan, and knew that his songs were based in fact, but I really became aware of how deep his research was, and how important translating research into songs is, when I saw him perform," Telg says.
Telg says his interest in the Smithsonian Folkways artist’s work grew as he witnessed, in real time, how audience members were moved by Saporiti’s unique yet accessible approach to communicating his scholarly research in the indie-folk songs he performed as No-No Boy.
“It was like a rethinking of what research can be," he recalls. "I saw reactions from people that I have never seen at any other concert.”
Following the No-No Boy concert at Heartwood Soundstage, Telg approached Saporiti about joining COTA’s Creative B summer program, which in 2025 carries the theme, “Sustainability.” Saporiti was onboard. His week-long Creative B residency, hosted by CAM, begins on August 4.
“When you are engaged in arts in any way,” Telg says, “that has positive health benefits.”
What if a concert was not just a means of communicating research, but an opportunity for audiences to become an active part of the research process itself?
"An interdisciplinary residency like Dr. Saporiti's highlights the benefits of the arts for health and well-being that we all experience firsthand," says COTA strategic events manager, Stephanie Silberman.
"When we listen to music, we experience it on multiple levels—physical, cognitive, social and emotional. It's amazing to see how he takes this sustainable research and translates it into music for us all to enjoy and experience together."
Saporiti’s Creative B Residency
To commence his residency, Saporiti will conduct fieldwork in collaboration with the UF/IFAS School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences, collecting sounds from forest ecosystems that will be foundational to his research and music. On the second day, he will give a lecture available for forestry students only.
The Digital Worlds Institute will also host Saporiti for a guest lecture and panel on the various uses of sound in the Polymodal Immersive Classroom Theater. Available to everyone, the lecture will delve more into the technical component of how Saporiti captures sounds.
On the third day, Saporiti will join the Center for Arts in Medicine at UF Health Shands for a guest lecture and to perform music with Shands Arts in Medicine practitioners.
CAM visiting lecturer and songwriter, Maggie Clifford, Ph.D., will draw on her own research on climate change and environmental communication to co-lead a student workshop alongside Saporiti in which students will write a song about their own field of academic interest.
Friday, August 8 will conclude Saporiti’s residency. Similar to his last stop in Gainesville, Saporiti will hold a lecture-performance open to the community. Attendees can look forward to some of his No-No Boy songs as well as his more recent environmentally focused work.
“The purpose of him being here is not to put on a concert,” Telg stresses. “He did that when he came to Gainesville last year, and it was so inspiring. But the purpose of him being here now is to teach us what he does and how he does it.”
In opening up the door to different ways of communicating research, Telg believes that Saporiti’s music acts as a gateway for more people to join in on the conversations happening in classrooms and other academic spaces. Because, he notes, while many people might be reluctant to read a 50+ page research article, there is a higher chance a catchy song with a compelling story will sustain their interest.
And when they finish that song, they’ll be excited for the next.
