What Is PROTOCALIA?
PROTOCALIA is elevated or “upscale” genre—sometimes “grounded sci-fi.” It is fascinated by the systems that humans create around us: workplaces, governments, corporations, technologies, rituals, bureaucracies, families and economies.
Think procedural realism, corporate conspiracies, surveillance, body horror, identity collapse and technological dehumanization. Worlds of adult professionals and moral exhaustion. Keycards, lab coats, notebooks and bosses—overwhelmed protagonists dwarfed by enormous concrete buildings.
Seminal works include: THX 1138, The Parallax View, Alien, Blade Runner, Brazil, RoboCop, Ghost in the Shell, Michael Clayton, Children of Men, Minority Report, Battlestar Galactica (remake), Black Mirror, Blade Runner 2049, Mr. Robot, Counterpart, Severance and Andor.
Pivotal creators: Stanley Kubrick, Roman Polanski, Alan Pakula, Ridley Scott, Philip K. Dick and Alex Garland.
It is often fantastic—sci-fi, horror, thrillers—but doesn’t have to be: All the President’s Men and Mad Men are perfect examples.
It is partly defined by what it is NOT: it is not gore, camp, creature features, mindless action or exploitation.
As captivating as its worldbuilding can be, PROTOCALIA is really about the pressure that our manufactured systems apply to human beings. Faye Miller in Mad Men said it best: “In a nutshell, it all comes down to what I want versus what’s expected of me.”
PROTOCALIA may have bleak iconography, but its storytelling is anything but. It is about moral resilience, human connection and the awakening of the soul—courage, connection and finding the meaning in our existence.
It is THX 1138 escaping his underground dystopia to see the sunset; an android cop saying that his name is Murphy; Bix Caleen holding Andor’s baby in a field of glowing wheat.
The best PROTOCALIA is balanced between outward speculation into human society—and inward analysis to the human soul. And it is deeply—albeit often quietly—emotional.
This website is a tribute to this storytelling, and an effort to build a community and collective to make more of it. The best way we can see more and better examples of this kind of art is to demonstrate that there is a consistent, coherent audience for it.
In the next essay, I’ll explain who I am and why I’m building PROTOCALIA now.
Look for more articles and updates in the days ahead—and please subscribe to stay informed. Thanks! —Lukas Kendall
