Usually, art exhibits are arranged by the gallery director or curator who presents the pieces in a way he or she thinks is best for the artwork.

Looking to challenge how things can be perceived in a gallery setting, Marla Jaksch, coordinator for the Zoller Gallery, decided to let go of some of her authority and allow a more collaborative effort for a new exhibit, Flickering Signifiers.

Utilizing ideas from feminist pedagogy, Jaksch thought an exhibition that used input from the artists, student staff members and Women's Studies 003 (Introduction to Women, the Humanities and the Arts) students would be a good idea.

"It's not just about looking at the artwork," Jaksch said. "Hopefully it also provokes people to look at our own identities and how they are constructed."

The exhibit will be shown in the Zoller Gallery through Nov. 29. Also, there will be a gallery lecture about the exhibit at noon today and a reception with many of the artists in attendance from 5 to 7 p.m.

Flickering Signifiers looks at six artists' perspectives on identity including racial, sexual, national and ethnic components. The exhibit, featuring installations, sculpture, digital videos and music, also looks at the influence technology has had on the way people perceive identities.

"Identity is a complicated thing ... we are in no way trying to simplify it," Jaksch said. "We are trying to add to conversation within different intersections of cultural ideas."

One artist featured in the exhibit, Kate Budd, an associate professor at the Myers School of Art at the University of Akron, is presenting her latest work.

Her pieces, which are wax sculptures of dolls, provoke questions about the way a woman should look. The dolls may look innocent and sweet, but there is an eerie presence about them, as they are missing limbs and are a bit creepy, she said.

"I thought about when I was a little girl wanting to wear jeans and get dirty, but my mom wanted me to wear pink and act sweet," Budd said.

Another artist featured in the exhibit, Adam Wolpa, had the gallery and its staff follow his instructions to put together his sculpture. In this way, he said, the project and his piece are a collaborative effort.

Through his use of recycled materials from previous installations and other personal artifacts, along with a sound component featuring music and a spoken word piece, Wolpa said his piece shows the broad meanings of identity.

"I have sent up instructions to install the piece in a certain way, but in a way it may be an arbitrary arrangement, as the artifacts are not part of the sculpture," he said.

The idea of identity, with the fact that he will not be present to arrange his piece, intrigues Wolpa.

"I think its okay for the piece," Wolpa said. "I am interested in seeing how it comes into place. It's less scripted in a way."

The exhibit will have some interactive features like a response book, from which text may be used to add to the show.