What is the difference between working alone and collaborating?

Use the following questions and related media as a way to initiate dialogue about contemporary art and specific ideas related to where art is seen, how it is made, and who makes it. Related images and video segments should inspire a variety of responses and provoke new ways of thinking about possible answers.

What is the difference between working alone and collaborating—with assistants, specialists, fabricators, audiences, or others?

Laurie Simmons. "The Music of Regret (Meryl)," 2006. Flex print, 40 x 40 inches. © Laurie Simmons, courtesy the artist and Salon 94, New York

"I decided that the puppet of myself would become a real woman. It would have been too uncomfortable to think about Meryl Streep portraying me in the movie. So, once she claimed the part, I stopped thinking about the part as representing me or my life. Once I got over that, she became the character; it wasn't about me anymore."
—Laurie Simmons