All art is collaborative; you get to choose the distance.
I heard recently some conversation about an animated film, and specifically how the performers didn’t interact when they recorded. They might not even know who else is in the cast, or the plot of the film. At the opposite extreme, the actors in Christopher Guest’s movies collaborate on the plot and then collaboratively improvise their own dialogue on camera.
I collaborate remotely with composers when I commission them. I collaborate directly with my ensemble singers in rehearsal and performance. I can record together with a full ensemble or individuals one-at-a-time.
There’s no one right way to create great art, and there’s no approach that is lesser. Great art can be created at any collaborative distance.
Even the most solitary artworks – novels, solo compositions – are created with the assistance of friends, editors, trusted confidants.
And the final collaborator in all art is the audience. the listener, the reader, the viewer. Those collaborations are the final and most important, whatever the distance.