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Arkadia: A City Built from Memory, Mind, and Myth

Arkadia is a narrative-led multimedia project developed by Hunter Deorum and produced through Deorum Studios. Rooted in the psychological spaces we retreat to during periods of emotional strain, Arkadia explores themes of memory, trauma, identity, and healing through a blend of visual storytelling, sound, and written word.

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The project began during Deorum’s undergraduate studies in Fine Art and Psychology at the University of Wolverhampton, growing from a simple sketchbook note into a complex narrative that blurs the line between internal experience and constructed space.

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What Is Arkadia?

Arkadia imagines the mind as a shifting, surreal landscape, a dreamlike city constructed from fragments of memory, grief, and unspoken emotion. The project follows a symbolic character (also named Arkadia) who navigates this place, encountering environments that mirror psychological states: rivers that reflect distorted truths, hallways that never end, ruins echoing with unfinished thoughts.

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Developed through illustration, experimental fiction, ambient sound design and physical installation, Arkadia is less about linear storytelling and more about emotional resonance. Its environments serve as metaphors for trauma responses, dissociation, and the long, nonlinear process of healing.

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Psychological Frameworks and Influence

Much of the emotional weight behind Arkadia comes from its grounding in psychological theory and experience. Dissociation is expressed through the way the character experiences time and space, appearing in unknown settings with no memory of how they arrived, constantly seeking something just out of reach. This disorientation mirrors common trauma responses, particularly in those living with PTSD or complex emotional histories. Freud’s concept of the uncanny is present throughout the project in environments that are familiar yet disturbingly altered, evoking a sense of unease and emotional displacement. These spaces reflect the cognitive dissonance often felt when trauma reshapes one’s sense of what is safe or known.

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Jung’s idea of the shadow self is embodied in the repeated doubling of the Arkadia figure, a recurring presence that confronts the viewer with the repressed, hidden parts of the self. This recurring motif becomes a metaphor for unresolved memory, identity conflict, and emotional fragmentation. Rather than acting as theoretical references alone, these psychological ideas are used as creative tools. They offer structure to the project’s emotional logic, allowing Arkadia to reflect the way psychological states might manifest as physical spaces or narrative shifts.

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Project Objectives

The core intention behind Arkadia was to create a space where personal and psychological experiences could be externalised and explored through creative means. Rather than aiming to resolve trauma or offer clear messages, the work focused on the act of witnessing and holding emotional truth. One aim was to translate abstract emotional and psychological states into visual and narrative form, creating something that felt true, even if it wasn’t literal. The project also hoped to encourage reflection in those engaging with it, particularly in relation to their own internal landscapes or unresolved emotional experiences. By avoiding neatly resolved narratives, Arkadia invited audiences to dwell in the complexity of emotional processing and self-exploration.

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Additionally, the project was designed to highlight the lived experiences of individuals navigating mental health challenges, particularly those relating to neurodivergence, grief, trauma, and identity. The work embraced ambiguity and fragmentation, both thematically and formally, to mirror the way these experiences unfold in real life.

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Execution and Exhibition

Arkadia was first presented publicly as part of the University of Wolverhampton’s 2024 Degree Show. It later featured in several group exhibitions across the West Midlands, receiving strong engagement from a range of audiences. The project included a combination of digital illustrations, concept visuals, and dreamlike environments, designed to evoke memory, confusion, and transformation.

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Short fiction and audio scripts formed part of the installation, written in a fragmented and lyrical style that echoed the internal voice of the protagonist. These texts were layered with ambient sound, including field recordings and manipulated vocal samples, to create a sonic landscape that reflected the emotional tone of the work. The installation itself was a quiet, immersive space designed to invite stillness, silence, and contemplation. Visitors were encouraged to take their time, sit with the work, and let it unfold in their own way. No explanations were offered on-site, deliberately, allowing each viewer to bring their own associations to the piece.

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Impact and Reflection

Arkadia was featured in several art publications, including The Visual Arts Journal and Artists Responding To, where it was noted for its emotional depth and conceptual clarity. However, the most meaningful impact came from the direct feedback of those who engaged with the project in person. Many visitors expressed that Arkadia helped them connect with aspects of their own experience they hadn’t previously been able to name, particularly those involving grief, dissociation, and emotional memory. It became a mirror, a space where internal truths could be felt without judgement or the need for explanation.

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For Deorum Studios, Arkadia became a foundational project, shaping the studio’s ethos and approach to socially engaged, emotionally rooted work. It served as a reminder that art doesn’t need to fix or explain to be useful. Sometimes it just needs to hold space.

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Conclusion

Arkadia embodies the core of Deorum Studios’ mission: to create work that doesn’t shy away from complexity, that honours emotional truth, and that invites connection over spectacle. The project showed that even imagined spaces can become real if they give us the language or stillness we need to understand what we’re carrying.

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Art, in this case, became a structure for psychological reflection, a city made of memories, myths, and moments we thought we’d forgotten.