Mack, Rainer  

Amazing teacher! I highly recommend you take his class.

If you have the chance, take him. He lecture from the slides which are for the most part interesting. There is a textbook, but as soon as I learned that we weren't tested on the direct content of the book I stopped reading closely. That being said you could stop reading this altogether and still get by until the final. The 4 hour course comprises of lecture and writing activity in the first half, which isn't harshly graded unless you really haven't been paying attention or didn't open the book. The second half includes either making a work of art with partner and 2 page reflection paper or a presentation on a work in the book and a 5-6 page paper, remember to cite your sources (kids in my class got crucified for this). To get a good grade on this you must 1. not be boring (work on your presentation skills, dont just read off of your notes in monotone) 2. look like you put in a lot of effort 3. not seem like you're BS'ing when you really are, because holy shit can he smell BS. Also our final was take home open resource, so find a buddy and stick with them to think things through. Unless that is, your final isn't take home.

This was a super easy course and the professor was awesome. A lot of people just sat through the lecture and never spoke but if you actually pay attention, he is a really funny, cool guy who has some good stuff to say. Course load wise: your grade is composed of 3 in class reflections, participation, and two essays. No in class final, only a take home 1 page essay.

Let me start by saying, I did not want to take this class but had to for a GE requirement. BUT I am very glad I did! Prof. Mack makes the material interesting and he is pretty funny (which is necessary in a 4 hr lecture). The course consisted of 3 in class writings, a take home midterm, and a project that you had to present in class. Don't bother reading (or even buying) the textbook. Overall, I definitely recommend! Easy and interesting...what more could you ask for?

This quarter the class was a four hour block, which made it hard to concentrate and stay awake in class. The class was long, which made the powerpoints long. I think it would be better if the class was shorter. Great professor, interesting thought process. Gives study guides. Worked with students to determine how the final was going to be given (we ended up with two choices. One- an in class final according to the study guides, and two-a take home 4/5 page essay). The grading consisted of the essays and the final. You have to try and to kinda of need to write well on the essays- clear thought process and a transition from the beginning to the end (don't end up the same place as you began in the beginning of essay).

Professor Mack is so organized and LOVES art. At first I was disappointed I got stuck in art 112, but I really started to look forward to the class towards the end. In general, pretty easy class. Study a little bit every week for the final and you're solid. BIG TIP FOR ESSAYS: Mack values original thinking way over every thing else. I came up with an original thesis in every essay and on each essay evaluation, he mentioned how much he loved the thesis' originality.

If you can, take this class with Professor Mack. It is extremely easy, there is little work, and its pretty interesting. He let us do a take home essay for our final. There are a lot of pictures in the PowerPoints he talks about how he has been a lot of these places. There are a few essays and all of them are pretty straightforward and don't require research. I had him for a 4 hour block, but he always let us out at least an hour early. He's a total hippie and it was funny when he climbed up onto the desk to point out details of a painting. This is how a GE should be taught. If you need to see him for office hours however, that gets complicated because he lived in LA and commutes but he is really good about emailing you back.

Honestly I have no idea how this guy's ratings are so high, I guess it's an example of strong opinion bias. I won't mention how he took off 25% of my participation for missing a class because I had to attend my sister's wedding, despite the fact that I participated in every lecture; or that my friend that missed the same class, didn't raise his hand once and got 100% for participation. I won't mention that he refused to give me any feedback on my rough draft for one of the 5 papers that we wrote. I won't mention how he was blatantly rude to me in an several emails. What I will mention is how he is indeed passionate about his field, he is knowledgeable beyond his years, and clearly knows his stuff. But from a student's perspective, I would absolutely, 100% not recommend his class, and may god have mercy on you should you be unlucky enough to think it is an easy class. You will not enjoy the class at any point and you will come away feeling as though you learned nothing.

Professor Mack was a good lecturer and a nice guy. In class he acted like the assignments were easy and that he would grade them flexibly. However, he gives vague instructions and then assumes you know exactly what to do and at what extent to do it. For example, for peer assessments for the term project he gave simple instructions and then emails us saying that they were not thorough enough and he is taking points off. It is an easy class, but his style of assigning/grading things really bothered me. The midterm and final are both online. My recommendation would be taking this GE online.

Yes, this class is 4 hours on Friday. No, it's not awful. He always let us out early (like 1-2 hours early!) because he knew the time block was not ideal. I'm not interested in the subject but he did a great job keeping everyone engaged. This class is a manageable A if you try on the Art Guide project. Tests and "quizzes" are fair. I recommend this to anyone looking for a simple GE.

What else is there to say? Fine person, nothing interesting. Class was meh... Blah, blah, blah... Fine person.