The good thing about this class is that its only one three hour lecture per week, with no discussions. Most people leave after attendance is taken during the break. And you can do well in the class without paying attention at all during lecture. Your entire grade is based on whether your TA likes your writing.

Lunenfeld doesn't even care that most of the audience isn't paying attention. The class is used for promoting his book about stuff that nobody cares about. You can't google any of the topics because he made them up and gives them vague and arbitrary definitions in his book.

The photo assignment and reviews barely take any effort. You only have to read the readings once: when the professor tells you that there's a quiz the next week.

Although this class requires minimal effort, your grade is entirely dependent on whether your TA likes your writing. My friends who got the best grades were the ones who bullshitted their essays the night before. If you're good at that, this class should be an easy A for you.

After reading all of the previous reviews I still decided to take the class because of the fact that it had no discussion and a lot of people were getting A's. While that is true, you have to think about what you want. If you don't want to think about the class and want a lot of free time during the lecture to do other work, then it's probably worth it. This year it was 2 classes for an hour and 20 minutes . However, you have to understand that once finals roll around, you will be completely and utterly unprepared. The final is a take home final, featuring 3 short papers, which doesn't sound that bad. No. Wrong. You have to use quotes from all the readings that you will undoubtably not do, and the prompts are complicated, theoretical, and make little sense- much like Lunenfeld's teaching style. Most of the assignments in this class will have you thinking: why am I doing this. Also, the majority of the information is made up by Lunenfeld himself, along with the readings which are mostly written by him. If you actually want to learn something, this class is a bad idea. But if you are the type of person (which a lot of us are) who thinks a quarter of doing nothing is worth being completely and utterly lost for the final, then it's worth it. Also, your grade depends on your TA, so if you have a bitchy TA then you're screwed. If you have a nice TA, the class is a cake walk and you don't have to worry about the fact that nothing you write makes sense.

This class is very much what you have read from previous comments. Attendance is mandatory, but attendance is also all you truly need to succeed in this class. Show up, pay attention, take notes, and you will be fine. The class consisted of 2 reflections on outside events, a photo analysis project, a midterm and a take home essay final. That is it. You can get by without doing most of the readings if you focus during lecture. At times the class can be rather dry, especially during more of the history lectures, but in general, Lunenfeld does a good job of making the topic interesting. I highly recommend taking this course. Not only is it rather easy, it is also interesting and worth while.

The professor grades holistically. As long as you show effort on the final group project, you'll be fine. The TA's grade the midterm but I'm not sure how that contributes to the final grade since I got a B on the midterm and an A as my final overall grade.

TAKE THIS CLASS IF YOU WANT TO BOOST YOUR GPA. Theres theres a midterm, some photo/art reviews (which I did pretty much the day they were due and got A's), a midterm, and a final essay which is 3, 3 page essays. I would recommend doing the essays a week in advance because it got in the way of studying for my finals, but overall It was pretty easy. Most people, including me, just sign in and leave. It's 2 days a week, no discussion. If you don't stay for the lectures, it won't matter cause everything is based on common sense.

Pretty easy class overall. He's very helpful during office hours and helps edits your papers. TAs also are open to proofreading your papers and they also grade them, so I would suggest giving them your essays for them to look over. I would recommend this class if you want an easy ge!

Professor Lunenfeld is easily one of the most engaging professors I've had at UCLA. I finished this class and immediately looked for other classes to take with him. Would highly recommend him and any classes he offers, whether you're a DMA major or not!

This class was honestly a waste of my time. I thought that I would enjoy this class, even as a person who is a science major, because I do enjoy learning about media and all of its effects but i was WRONG. The lectures themselves were some of the most boring things I've ever had to sit through and I did not learn anything. Aside from their being barely any assignments [a photo response, 2 reviews, a midterm, and a final (which are three, 750 word essays)],no discussion, and only really having to check into class and being able to leave after(which I didn't always do), I regret taking this class. Most of my regret stems from the fact that the final is complete B.S. and asks questions that honestly only the professor would know the answer to since he literally makes up his own material (time periods, words, etc.) that does not actually exist, which means there is no other research you can do other than read his books (which also are very vague and do not make much sense). I was actually disappointed because I thought I was going to like the class. However, he did show a really good movie in class for a week and for that I am grateful.

Honestly, idk if I would say this is a very easy GE class. I was super excited to take this class b/c I was interested to learn more about media arts, but this class didn't really fulfill my expectations. The lectures were super boring which made most students just come in only to do attendance on the Archive app & leave right after. The other assignments such as picture response and exhibition reviews were super easy to do. However, the midterm and the final were kinda hard for me to answer b/c I had to incorporate materials from the lectures or the readings & it was hard for me to explain them in my own words. The questions definitely were challenging & required organizing & effort, and with my TA Tristan who was known to be that one DESMA TA who grades harshly, I struggled even more. Tristan was nice and understanding when I turned in my final paper 4 days late b/c of COVID-19 breakout, but it was a bit sad to get an A- from DESMA 8 where literally all of my other friends got an A or an A+. If you are a good writer, this class might be right for you, but if you hate and suck at writing as much as I do, then I would think about taking it. This class wasn't bad but wasn't the best either.

based af