Billionaire businessman and philanthropist George Soros' recent broadside against Google and Facebook at the World Economic Forum in Davos took a cudgel to received impressions of organised institutional power.

Generally thought of as benign facilitators of information, the internet and social media giants are perceived by Soros to be unregulated and 'powerful monopolies' whose mandate runs counter to aims of 'preserving competition, innovation and fair and open universal access'.

Worse, he envisages an Orwellian totalitarian nightmare where all actions, thoughts and commerce are directed through search engines and social media portals without regulation, leaving the possibility of the rise of malicious controlling agendas.

All-powerful cyber bodies are already 'addictive', says Soros; the rules of social and commercial engagement are directed almost exclusively through inherently exclusionary digital means.

Soros' foreboding is not without foundation. Nor are corollary fears for individual freedom and well-being: our existences are increasingly defined by our thrall to the aether, sometimes to the exclusion of personal relationships, often at the cost of near-total immersion.

The writer Will Self has even suggested that we may be evolving a whole new species of human, assimilated to the blandishments (or demands) of a parallel world.

The ground between how we think, and how we use available tools to express those thoughts in words has always been fertile territory for Settle Stories.

The Settle-based Arts organisation, whose huge reputation and success far outweigh its ongoing means, have utilised the brightest and best forms of all available media to establish a platform for storytelling and the power of the spoken and written word to engage, to entertain, and to enhance lives.

And they fully acknowledge the complexities and paradoxes which exist at the point where the ancient art of storytelling meets modern technology.

Settle Stories 2018 Festival, taking place between 6th & 8th April, will, in some senses, be taking a mirror to itself: the overwhelming theme, if 'overwhelming' may be applied to the astonishing diversity which characterised earlier festivals, will be an exploration of the relationship between technology and the Arts. And more particularly, how and in what ways art forms may be seen to have mutated or evolved in the wake of the digital revolution.

Are the new technologies tools only, or do they change the landscape and appearance of the Arts forever? These are some of the questions that the series of 70 plus events, which Settle Stories are staging, will be hoping to unravel under a festival programme title of 'An Adventure in Story, Ideas & Digital Art'.

And a cross-section of the performers taking part in April corroborates the compendious theme: from the knockabout comedy stories of 'The Queen and the Jester', to serious dramas whose narratives question the future of art and life, to a 'WiFi Wars' version of the TV game show, to the unique, and uniquely personal, 'goggle' performance by theatre group 'Il Pixel Rosso'.

'And the Birds Fell from the Sky', a combination of autoteatro style instructions and film, immerses the audience member in a drama where the usual physical locators are denied, and replaced with an all-consuming sensory experience.

Il Pixel Rosso's new approach to theatre pushes the limits of established storytelling with a technologically inclusive venture into the strange and the unknown.

Proto-Type Theater's staging of 'A Machine they're Secretly Building' is a frightening exploration of the paradoxical relationship between technology and intrusion, between free access to information and surveillance.

Incorporating flashback, dramatic monologue and a haunting, suggestive soundtrack, Proto-Type's thematic drive could not be more relevant, engaging directly with the notion of 'whistle-blowing' and speaking out at a time of great concern for personal liberty.

From the prognostically plausible to the entirely surreal, Settle Stories will always surprise: at the beginning of April, an equally plausible 50 foot 'beached' whale is going to appear in Settle Market Place in a bid to lure the unsuspecting passer-by, Jonah fashion. Once inside the lifelike inflatable beast, they are promised magical tales of shipwrecked pirates and mermaid-sirens.

A huge emblem of what Settle Stories stand for, Circo Rum Ba Ba's storytelling whale will be a fabulous, larger-than-life celebrant of story's power to transport children of all ages - from 4 to 94 - to realms beyond their own.

And a signpost to a festival that promises all manner of other toothsome artistic delights.
Settle Stories Festival - 6th to 8th April, 2018
For more information - Tel: 05603 845693
Web: www.settlestories.org.uk/festival