I Komang Arba Wirawan, 39, is a journalism lecturer and head of the Photography Course at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts (ISI) in Denpasar. He shared his day with Savitri Sastrawan.

I wake up in the early morning and go to the kitchen straight away. I help my wife to make Hindu offerings for the day. I also sweep the house and help clean it up. Then around 5.30am, I go cycling around the area, at Peguyangan, for about 30 minutes. When I get back, I stretch a bit and then get ready for work. I pray and help my children, a boy and girl, to get ready for school. I read newspapers, Bali Post and Kompas, while having breakfast.

Around 7.30am I go to the campus. Besides lecturing, I also do some administration work, writing reports, reading letters, and now I’m writing reports on some of the photography students.

If there are lectures, they will start at 8. I go to class and lecture for two hours. I teach journalism, photojournalism and research.

It’s different changing from being a journalist to a lecturer, but it’s still pretty dynamic. As a journalist you get to go to the regions and meet people from farmers to the highest officials; you make lots of friends. You get to be the bridge between the people and the government, tell their voices. The most tragic story I covered was during the 2002 bombings. I actually cried seeing it while taking photogra phs. It’s horrible to see such things. I really don’t get why people want to hurt each other. It’s just really not good.

In the academic realm you have a concept called Tri Dharma, which is teaching, researching and community service. As a lecturer this is your base. It should be applied in our work and also by the students themselves. Being a lecturer you get to communicate with lots of people, too, such as the students, colleagues and officials. You get to know the higher officials and bond with them, discuss things and suchlike.

I am involved in local, national and international exhibitions, such as our joint work with University of Western Australia recently, an exhibition called Truly Bagus, which became a bridge of culture between the two universities and countries. The exhibition also went online so it can be viewed internationally. This coming October will be their turn to come here and give workshops; then there may be further discussions about what can be done in the future together. I think there’ll be a great connection between the two.

We want to target photography to have its own faculty, called the Recording Media Faculty with an added study programme, television. Right now we are part of the Art and Design Faculty. We hope this can be changed soon.

After lecturing, sometimes there are meetings. When they are over we go back to the staffroom and continue working. We have lunch around 12.30pm, for half an hour, in the canteen. We then continue working and go home around 3.30pm.

When I get home, I rest for a bit then pick up my children and bring them to a tutorial around 4.30pm. I give lectures at Florida Keys International College from 6pm to 8 pm. It’s a Cruise Ship Photographer School. I go home at 9pm, have a shower, then sleep.

1 Comment

  1. Bali Anjani says:

    What a ritual!!!… I call this guy ‘Arba”, We were in the same faculty at Udayana (it was PSSRD)… It’s been long time since graduated time we never met… so know I know what ‘he is’… Success my friend !!!

    Elsihendra

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