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new IAPLC judging criteria.. your thoughts please ?

Trevor Pleco

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21 Oct 2012
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I presume most folk have seen this, but I wondered how this might change things for us next year and planning your next scape ?

The new criteria would seem to indicate that mimicking or replicating non underwater scenes or let's call it terrestrial landscapes is not encouraged.. or is it ?


The New IAPLC Judging Criteria effective from IAPLC2014
The IAPLC Steering Committee reviewed the judging criteria and revised them effective from IAPLC2014, which is considered to be a good timing since the contest received a record number of entries. We did so also for the reason of returning to the basics to rethink how planted aquarium should be.

For the parameters in the judging criteria, a focus is placed on “recreation of fish habitat” which is deeply associated with the origin of planted aquarium.

These new judging criteria do not limit the scope of layout expression of contestants. Their objective is to clearly define an essential feature of planted aquarium; recreating within a tank an environment conducive to fish survival.


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① Recreation of natural habitat for fish (Maximum 50 points)
・Evaluation of layout work as healthy fish habitat
・Expression of underwater environment in layout work
・General condition of fish and aquatic plants in layout work
・Evaluation of layout work if corresponding type, size, physiology and ecology of fish

② Long-term maintenance of layout work (Maximum 10 points)
・Chance of maintaining the aquascape for a long period of time
・Screening of whether or not the expression shown in the layout photo is a temporary one which was produced only for photographing.

③ Creator’s technical skills (Maximum 10 points)
・Evaluation of comprehensive techniques in creating and maintaining layout work

④ Originality and impression of layout work (Maximum 10 points)
・Evaluation of creator’s originality and creativity
・Perfection and attractiveness of layout work

⑤ Presentation of natural atmospherein layout work (Maximum 10 points)
・Expression of layout work concerning natural ecosystem
・Presentation of a sense of time’s passage
・Evaluation of creator’s interpretation of nature

⑥ Overall composition and planting balance (Maximum 10 points)
・Completeness of layout composition
・Evaluation of the balance of planting
 
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Sounds like a step in the right direction to me. Aside from an actual biotope, scapes don't really tend to provide a natural environment, but I much prefer to see some resemblance at least. Iwagumi for example could be rocks within a river rather than depicting a mountainscape, the natural positioning of the hardscape reflecting an appreciation of nature and the plants complimenting the feel. There is a huge amount of skill in preparing and creating a diorama type scape, but my preference is definitely for creating an environment for the fish where they represent fish, not birds for example. More true to the NA philosophy.
 
Evaluation of layout work as healthy fish habitat

So no more CO2 then ;)? IAPLC, get ready for the low-tech invasion...

I agree this is a good step. I do read it as a move towards a more classical conception. The focus, for example, on long-term maintenance prospects does seem to go against certain diorama style layouts, which seem short-term oriented and designed for that one photo. Also the repeated focus on a healthy and natural fish environment points to a more natural orientation. The formulations at places almost seem to call for biotope aquaria (especially point 5 and the focus on a "natural ecosystem"). This is hardly the intention, however. And just below they do also emphasize the creator's "interpretation" of nature, which is probably a good condensation of the NA philosophy: a focus on the natural, but through human aesthetic interpretation.

Thomas
 
Sounds like toms bucket could do quite well under the new criteria, shame it had to end
I think that all the different kinds of scape have a place in the competition but it should have separate categories for each type. I like all types for different reasons and imho they shouldn't be judged against each other. Personal taste and opinion have a lot to do with how we view a tank so as long as different types are judged against each other some people are going to disagree with the final decision.
Perhaps their thinking that the book looks too similar to last years, last years book didn't sell as many copies as the year before and their just trying to make it look a little more different
 
I'm sure it's all about Nature Aquarium style of Takashi Amano, not about biotopes. I haven't seen top-50 works yet, but judging from some familiar names I'm 100% sure they are not biotopes.
I think those new rules probably should derank various avant-garde layouts and probably diorama style towards NA.

Do you remember recent ADA movies about concept of NA and layouts? They're not biotopes although narrator said such aquariums provide health habitast for fish. And yes, they're still injecting a lot of CO2.

Would it be to rule out pure sanzon iwagumi as well? I dunno.

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IAPLC has always been about NA style tanks, if you want the biotope judged you either need AGA biotope section (for planted tanks) or other Biotope competitions (for unplanted tanks). I don't see a biotope correct tank ending high in the IAPLC evah......

Good to see the fake tree's go though.
 
darn, ive spent all day looking for a miniature climber i can fix to the side of my mountain... :sorry:
 
I agree, if only because as TOO mentions it redresses the balance away from the diorama scapes - favoring NA. I don't think there were too many of us that were happy with the way the competition seemed to be heading a year back - http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/iaplc-top-27.29450/
 
These new rules seem good, but are as usual another pile of dust in the eyes of the contestants, as most aquascapes I have seen so far from 2014 got nothing in common with such rules.
But then of course its always down to personal interpretation since most judges are not really well educated in fish environment stuff and are much more educated in aquatic sales or magazine praise of this or that aquatic product.
There is always something "new" in the judging criteria to keep folks believing that next time they will get more fare judgement, but.....
business is business is business.
The real judging criteria.

So guys don't even bother to rumble over this as the Japanese will not bother to listen. In the end of the day it is not a democracy. It is just a "contest", oh.....I mean a business exhibition.

It will become a real hobby contest only after the business guys get kicked out of it.
 
It will become a real hobby contest only after the business guys get kicked out of it.

A nice thought, definitely, but also a bit naive perhaps. If there was no business interest involved, we would not have a contest at this scale and quality. A contest with more than 2000 entries is surely quite resource demanding to handle properly.

Just out of curiosity (and I am asking this in an open and friendly manner :)): how is it that you think business interests influence the judging at the contest?

Thomas
 
A nice thought, definitely, but also a bit naive perhaps.

Just out of curiosity (and I am asking this in an open and friendly manner :)): how is it that you think business interests influence the judging at the contest?

Thomas
Naive not one bit, but impossible.

Now, let me explain how does all this works.
Dealers and distributors of aquatic products are also aquascapers as this is part of their aquatic business.
It is only normal to promote your own representatives as winners, rather that some random guys with nice tanks.
Promoting ADA dealers as winners will result in increase of ADA product sales. Simple as that.

Unfortunately business would influence up to a point of predetermination the judging in any contest on the planet, not just the IAPLC.

Contests can be real and fare only if the money and vanity incentives are removed, meaning they can never be truly fare.

Clapping hands is never for the winner, but for the appointed one.

If it was up to me every once in a while I would allow a completely random guy to win so everyone can see that there is some chance for real winning.
 
I see your point, but some hard evidence would be nice to back it up. I don't know all the top the names, but do you suggest that they are all somehow related to ADA as dealers or distributors? If you can show that this is the case your theory holds up to scrutiny. Otherwise it is just conspiratiorial. Also, it seems to be falsified by Viktor Lantos (one of the major ADA dealers in Europe) coming in only 200 something. But I am ready to be convinced otherwise :).

Thomas
 
I like point 2. Some of the scapes are truly amazing but are clearly not possible to maintain long term without a serious daily schedule. Obviously this won't and isn't designed to stop 'created for the photo' tanks, but should curb the outlandish end of things.
 
I see your point, but some hard evidence would be nice to back it up. I don't know all the top the names, but do you suggest that they are all somehow related to ADA as dealers or distributors? If you can show that this is the case your theory holds up to scrutiny. Otherwise it is just conspiratiorial. Also, it seems to be falsified by Viktor Lantos (one of the major ADA dealers in Europe) coming in only 200 something. But I am ready to be convinced otherwise :).

Thomas
IAPLC have never been won by a random independent guy. Not once.
Besides how hard is to check all ADA dealers and see where most of the names of all winners come from?
You see, if it is not the dealers participating it will be their customers with scapes that were created and often maintained by the dealers in the first place. Later those dealers would add those scapes in their portfolio as winning works, which in return will increase their business.
There is no conspiracy here. It's just business.
 
Interestingly enough Japan has not won the comp for the last 10 years, but won the first 3 comps since inception in 2001.. so presumably they had sold enough ADA by then :D

Only kidding Aqd !
 
Besides how hard is to check all ADA dealers and see where most of the names of all winners come from?.

How hard? Tell us when you've done it to back up your point ;)

Could be interesting or just point to the fact that those selling ADA and other hi end gear tend to be very good aquascapers
 
Could be interesting or just point to the fact that those selling ADA and other hi end gear tend to be very good aquascapers

Good point, James. Coincidence is not causation. Even if there is a link between high placers and ADA related people, the causal arrow may be different. I assume you only become an ADA dealer or representative because you are a pretty good scaper.

My knowledge of the world of aquascaping is not sufficient to do the analysis. Don't know most of the people on the list. But it would be interesting to if someone could conduct one.

Thomas
 
I would expect the guys at Creative Aquascape Union to only want to house their magnificent 'scapes in top quality glass boxes. Also you'd be a fool to pay top dollar for an ADA (or similar) tank and then ignore the assistance/aftercare of the retailer. Being such a specialised and small community it's almost impossible to be truly independent.

As an example, take Motorsport. There are weekend warriors who have a great time in 2nd hand BMW's etc (and nothing wrong with it either) but the guys who enter the higher level Porsche 911 races almost without exception have a specialist Porsche company backing them up & sponsorship. It could certainly effect your placing to be an independent. If you want to achieve at the higher end you have to tap into the available resources
 
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