Intersection: a one-day conference at the Rootstein Hopkins Space, London College of Fashion

In February 2006 Artquest hosted a one-day conference to discuss collaboration between designers, applied and fine artists and professionals from other disciplines. The event was designed to appeal to established practitioners who want to hear first-hand from their peers about the critical, conceptual and practical challenges that arise when working as collaborators in a variety of settings.

Themes covered by Intersection included:

• Why do artists and designers collaborate with professionals working in other fields?
• Is there such a thing as a truly democratic collaboration? 
• How does working in partnership affect authorship and control of intellectual property rights, commercial and cultural values? 
• What ethical factors need to be considered if a project is trans-national or cross-cultural? 
• Can collaboration offer new research or creative possibilities for practitioners?

The chair for the day was Marie O'Mahony: Consultant, curator and author of SportsTech: Revolutionary Fabrics, Fashion and Design, with a keynote by Charles Leadbeater: Visiting Fellow at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Associate of the Design Council, independent writer, speaker and adviser on innovation, entrepreneurship and the knowledge economy.  The final panel discussion was chaired by Clare Cumberlidge: Director, General Public Agency and speakers were Emily Campbell: Head of Design at the British Council; Annie Cattrell: Arts & Humanities Research Council. Art & Science Fellow in Fine Art & Sculpture, De Montford University; Nipa Doshi: Partner at Doshi Levien Design Partnership; Rebecca Earley: Senior Research Fellow for the Textiles Environment Design Project, Chelsea College of Art & Design; Deirdre Figueiredo: Director of Craftspace; Greg Hilty: Director of collaborative brokering agency plusequals; Rob Kesseler: NESTA Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Ceramic Design at Central St Martins School of Art.

• working professionally
• collaboration
• working with partners
• Interdisciplinary practice
• ownership
• Authorship