my recommendation


> have been too
> busy at work to be able to afford the 9-11 hours in a row that it
> would take to really get into the guts of this machine and all
> its ramifications.

it is easy to find oneself in this mind-set but time is not what
it takes.

> Was it thoroughly trial and error, or did
> you study previous methods of doing this sort of composition?

trial and error accurately descibes most of what i have tried
to do - a chance occurance that comes from experimentation can be the
best reward i could hope for. from time to time i have attempted to
integrate other methods of composition into my work, but it has always
been with mediocre results at best.

> Do you
> have any starting points that you would recommend, anything you
> would recommend a newcomer master before going any futher? Any
> "tricks of the trade?" Anything?

my recommendation would be to try anything as a starting point, and
then to reflect on this beginning and make whatever associations
comes naturally, and then contribute to the already existing base.
it has been my experience that it is not so much what you do but
within what context you do it. the materials you use are
insignificant in relation to the attitude with which they are
applied. don't let the thought of what to do stop you from doing
anything - just let it happen. the creative aspects that are inside
of us are much more in line with what should happen than anything we
could ever want to happen. my works that i have been most pleased with
were the ones that occured in some way that i had very little to do
with, usually only as a catalyst to start the process, then step back
and watch it develop of it's own accord. also i would recommend that you
never dismiss anything that you do, many times i have gone back and
looked at something that i was really displeased with at the time of
creation, but in hind-sight it allowed for some fascinating contexts
that i would/could not have forseen or imagined.