From watching ASPECT: early works volume 8, I was most interested in the work of Tony Oursler. Oursler's "Spinout" was the featured video. The video explores the feeling of a loss of control. Throughout the video, an array of different fears are presented. The tone used in the video with both audio and visual affects reinforces the eerie feeling. Naturally, the generative topic that seemed most appropriate and versatile is "fear."
To start off my research, I wanted to find an accurate definition of the word fear. Dictionary.com provided this as a definition:
fear
[feer] 
Show IPA–noun| 1. | a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid. |
| 2. | a specific instance of or propensity for such a feeling: an abnormal fear of heights. |
| 3. | concern or anxiety; solicitude: a fear for someone's safety. |
| 4. | reverential awe, esp. toward God. |
| 5. | that which causes a feeling of being afraid; that of which a person is afraid: Cancer is a common fear.
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From the word "fear" I was then interested in comparing the difference between "fear" and "phobia." Dictionary.com provided this as the definition of "phobia":
pho⋅bi⋅a
[foh-bee-uh] Show IPA–noun| a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it. |
Origin:
1780–90; extracted from nouns ending in -phobia 
Synonyms:
aversion, hatred.
Next, I wanted to investigate what the most common fears were. An interesting aside to this would be to survey people and see how often your friends fears fit in to the most common fears. Another exercise could be compiling a list of the weirdest fears. Working to categorize these fears and find similarities, differences, and reasons for these fears.
http://www.inspiredmoneymaker.com/2008/04/23/14-most-common-fears-in-life-and-what-to-do-about-them/
This is an art project that I came across, dealing with fears and presenting students with the challenge of "drawing a feeling." I thought that this would be an interesting activity because it would force the students to think of their fears in a non-linear pattern. Instead of drawing a literal translation of their fears, they are asked to choose their material, colors, and techniques in a way that represents their fear.
The second lesson plan that I found to correspond with the generative topic of fear involved creating a mask of what fear looks like. This could become an interesting project in that some masks could come off quite literally, as something that is scary. Other masks may be hiding what fear is.
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