Ultraviolet is a multimedia performance by Birgit Rathsmann and Rick Karr that attempts to come to an understanding of what’s happening today in the United States using principles of evolutionary biology — with help from some volcanic islands, a Victorian British naturalist who lived on one of them, and some particularly florid species of birds he studied there.

Along the way, Ultraviolet touches on gender roles, sexual desire, the stimulant effects of mobile devices, the blurriness of borders, and the meaning of a door without a wall.