LIVINGSTON MANOR, NY — The Catskill Art Society (CAS) will host an interactive presentation by David Al-Ibrahim on Saturday, October 7 at 4 p.m. titled “Calling Thunder: The Unsung History of Manhattan.” It explores the untold history of New York through spatial audio and mobile VR. Audiences will be transported through a series of interactive soundscapes that compare today’s urban cacophony on Manhattan to the vibrant ecosystems the Lenape lived within when Europeans arrived. Visitors will have the opportunity to experience mobile VR and walk through a demo of the program with its creator.

According to naturalists, “Manhattan in the 17th century had more ecological communities per acre than Yellowstone.” Using 360 audio technology with field recordings produced by collaborator Bill McQuay and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library, Al-Ibrahim recreates Collect Park and Inwood Hill Park as they were before the Dutch settled the island in 1624, transporting the sounds and sights of katydids, bullfrogs and crows undisturbed by honking taxis, squealing breaks and the ubiquitous city worker jackhammering the streets. For more information visit www.catskillartsociety.org.