Brilio.net - Being an art student is not only about creativity, but also about facing challenges in terms of college assignment costs. In addition to tuition fees or SPP, art students often have to dig deeper into their pockets to complete their assignments.
From purchasing art supplies like canvas, paint, to digital equipment like graphic tablets, the costs can exceed estimates. In fact, in some cases, the total cost for a single assignment can be three times the cost of a semester's tuition fees.
Well, for that reason, brilio.net investigated further and invited art students to talk about their concerns when working on assignments in their respective departments.
photo: Instagram/@alinlian
Alin Liandisshanti, a student majoring in Fine Arts at ISI (Indonesian Institute of the Arts) Yogyakarta, admitted that the tasks of art students are quite different from those of other college majors in general. Her major seems to involve more practice than theory.
"The difference is that we do more exploration. There is also theory, but there is more practice," said Alin to brilio.net , Wednesday (18/9).
This was also confirmed by Diva Puwan, a student majoring in Batik and Fashion at ISI Yogyakarta. According to Diva, most of her college assignments were practical. She also had to write to explain her work. In addition, since the beginning of college, Diva admitted that she had to create works and programs to hold her first exhibition.
"What's different from other departments is that art students probably have more practical assignments and create works, then we also explain the works we create. In the first year, we usually prepare works and programs for the First Exhibition of each department," said Diva.
The creation of works that require the purchase of various materials is a factor that art students have to dig deep into their pockets. Alin admitted that as a student whose job is to paint, she has to spend up to Rp500 thousand to do her assignment for a month.
"Regarding the budget, it actually depends on the choice of materials, but it has been up to IDR 500 thousand. But that can be used for a month's assignment," said Alin.
Meanwhile, Diva admitted that she needed funds in the range of IDR 300 thousand to IDR 500 thousand for one college assignment.
"You could say between Rp. 300-Rp. 500 thousand," said Diva.
photo: Instagram/@alinlian
Meanwhile, Disti revealed that students in the Interior Design (DI) department have a super expensive budget when doing their assignments. She explained that students in the interior design department have to spend a budget of up to millions of rupiah. When asked the reason, the large amount of funds was spent because DI students' assignments had to be done through vendors.
"In my opinion, interior design students have expensive assignments. It can be up to millions (rupiah). Because at DI, they don't make it themselves. They only make designs, then the designs are handed over to the craftsmen or vendors," explained Disti, a student majoring in Sculpture at ISI Yogyakarta.
Disti revealed that her friend who majored in DI could spend up to IDR 10 million, around three times more than her tuition fees which were only IDR 2.2 million.
"If I'm in Sculpture, I can be tricked into choosing cheap materials. Well, I can't do that in DI. At that time, my friend once made a set of living room chairs for IDR 10 million. Even though the UKT cost IDR 2.2 million. The minimum cost was IDR 1 million (per assignment). And that's the cost of a college assignment, for TA (final assignment) it could be even more expensive," explained Disti.
Meanwhile, the Final Assignment of art students who are oriented towards work, makes Denny Saiful, have to provide a cost that is also not small. The student majoring in Fine Arts ISI Yogyakarta estimates the budget for completing his assignment reaches Rp 15 million.
photo: Instagram/@alinlian
When asked how to overcome the high cost of campus assignments, they admitted to getting around it by choosing cheap materials, and determining the concept of the work that can be done with the cheapest possible production costs. This can actually be done as long as there is a good idea and it is approved by the department on campus.
"In my opinion, that's an option. If you want to save money, you can do it. Making work doesn't have to be expensive, after all, this is just a campus assignment," said Alin.
Alin's statement was confirmed by Rio Aji, a student of Art Management at ISI Yogyakarta. He emphasized to brilio.net that campus assignments are ultimately just a formality. Rio believes that the budget for assignments that are issued is sometimes not comparable to the grades that he gets.
"This is my personal view, sometimes campus assignments are just an academic formality. So the only thing that is emphasized is the end result, without being given an understanding of the nuts and bolts of the work process. Well, what's even funnier is that if the final result doesn't comply with the existing provisions, then our grades may also be just mediocre, even though sometimes the budget or effort expended is extraordinary. In this model, in the end, we only do assignments to get them done, not to understand the meaning of the assignment given. The goal shifts," said Rio, Wednesday (18/9).