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IAPLC 2016 rankings

rebel

rebel

Member
Joined
4 Aug 2015
Messages
2,269
Hi everyone,

I've been thinking about how they do the rankings in IAPLC. With Amano gone, would it be the same? How will the competition evolve in the future? Who will take Amano's place as the creative director of the franchise?

Have you studied what it takes to be ranked highly? Can you reverse engineer some of the scapes?

IMHO nanos and Dutch won't be ranked highly. I am no expert on the subject however.

Please discuss. :)
 
Good questions.

I hope we see a move away from the Diorama style. I suppose its a personal taste thing, but they've begun to look so contrived; like bad special effects in a movie. I'd also like to see a greater emphasis on the use of plants and varieties, much of the contest has leaned heavily on hardscape and few plant species. Maybe this is an issue with scoring or with the styles that do well. To that point, you are right, dutch scapes do not score well. To some extent I understand why, they do not show off much of a natural environment with their heavily manicured look. They also lack a sense of depth and scale you can achieve with other style layouts. Nanos suffer as well, but for different reasons. While you can achieve great sense of depth or scale, you are greatly limited on plant selection in order to achieve it so there are losses to the overall look in that regard. I think the ideal scape is a 120 cm. Much bigger and you get a big look because its a big tank...more easily achieved. Smaller and you lose some options or flexibility to achieve various effects or looks which hurt the scoring.

Who will take Amano's place? Can anyone? I'm not sure we will see someone rise to take his place or try to fill his shoes. We may see more of an IAPLC or ADA run by committee with the goal of continuing Mr. Amano's vision. I'm far from knowledgeable in this so this is just a guess...

As far as reverse engineering...I think if you wanted the look in your home you can do so to some extent. Acquiring the hardscape and understanding some of the skills required to assemble it in the ways they do would be some of the most difficult parts. If you can grow plants well that is.

We have a great interview with Steven Chong of the Tokyo Aquascaping Union coming up in The Aquascaping Podcast, where he talks about competition focused Aquascaping. There is a big difference in the mindset and approach as opposed to most of us hobbyists who tend to make scapes we like or want in our living room and then submit to a contest if we feel it is good enough and the competitive contest focused aquascaper whose goal is to create a winning layout. Stay tuned...should be up in a couple weeks ;)
 
ShawnMac said:
I hope we see a move away from the Diorama style. I suppose its a personal taste thing, but they've begun to look so contrived; like bad special effects in a movie. I'd also like to see a greater emphasis on the use of plants and varieties, much of the contest has leaned heavily on hardscape and few plant species.
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my thoughts as well - I just don't see the point in a PLANT contest of stone + moss having such an (enduring) elevated standing ......
 
Well its Amanos nature aquarium methods -a great nature aquarium can have lots of planting or very little lots of hardscape or hardly any and some of the top entries lean towards the Dutch style.Its down to the judges some entries are so good it always divides opinion.
 
One could argue that Fukada is the new Amano. He won this year and last year. And has always ranked very high, I think he came second twice in previous years.

Just google image search 'Fukada aquascape'. There's pics to be found of his aquascaping room too.

Congratz to all the UKAPS members who entered!

Now is a very good time to start building a new scape! Aim high!
 
Dantrasy said:
One could argue that Fukada is the new Amano. He won this year and last year. And has always ranked very high, I think he came second twice in previous years.

Just google image search 'Fukada aquascape'. There's pics to be found of his aquascaping room too.

Congratz to all the UKAPS members who entered!

Now is a very good time to start building a new scape! Aim high!
Click to expand...
He certainly looks mature and wise. Too bad they don't get involved with us mortals in the forums... :p
 
Dantrasy said:
Now is a very good time to start building a new scape! Aim high!
Click to expand...
Absolutely agree! I am taking a positive attitude, even if the judging is biased etc (which it has to be)
 
ShawnMac said:
Good questions.

I hope we see a move away from the Diorama style. I suppose its a personal taste thing, but they've begun to look so contrived; like bad special effects in a movie. I'd also like to see a greater emphasis on the use of plants and varieties, much of the contest has leaned heavily on hardscape and few plant species. Maybe this is an issue with scoring or with the styles that do well. To that point, you are right, dutch scapes do not score well. To some extent I understand why, they do not show off much of a natural environment with their heavily manicured look. They also lack a sense of depth and scale you can achieve with other style layouts. Nanos suffer as well, but for different reasons. While you can achieve great sense of depth or scale, you are greatly limited on plant selection in order to achieve it so there are losses to the overall look in that regard. I think the ideal scape is a 120 cm. Much bigger and you get a big look because its a big tank...more easily achieved. Smaller and you lose some options or flexibility to achieve various effects or looks which hurt the scoring.

Who will take Amano's place? Can anyone? I'm not sure we will see someone rise to take his place or try to fill his shoes. We may see more of an IAPLC or ADA run by committee with the goal of continuing Mr. Amano's vision. I'm far from knowledgeable in this so this is just a guess...

As far as reverse engineering...I think if you wanted the look in your home you can do so to some extent. Acquiring the hardscape and understanding some of the skills required to assemble it in the ways they do would be some of the most difficult parts. If you can grow plants well that is.

We have a great interview with Steven Chong of the Tokyo Aquascaping Union coming up in The Aquascaping Podcast, where he talks about competition focused Aquascaping. There is a big difference in the mindset and approach as opposed to most of us hobbyists who tend to make scapes we like or want in our living room and then submit to a contest if we feel it is good enough and the competitive contest focused aquascaper whose goal is to create a winning layout. Stay tuned...should be up in a couple weeks ;)
Click to expand...


Thanks Shawn.

I quite like the dioramas but I agree some are looking very contrived. They must take alot of effort to trim that moss just the way you need!!

The moss predominant scapes excite me because I find that it's easy to grow moss. I find stems a little more challenging. :)

It would be sad if the competitions all copied ADA. It would be great to have individuality.
 
Dantrasy said:
One could argue that Fukada is the new Amano.
Click to expand...
He's obviously an amazing visual artist...but most of his scapes are too dioramic and too far removed from the original Naturescape concept for my tastes.
 
Tim Harrison said:
He's obviously an amazing visual artist...but most of his scapes are too dioramic and too far removed from the original Naturescape concept for my tastes.
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I agree. I think the thing about dioramas is that they are so very formulaic. While very technically challenging, they do not seem to have the "soul" of Amano's nature aquarium. Now, while I fully confess to being a total ADA fanboy, all scapes don't have to emulate something from Amano, but a scape that different people can look at and get different feelings or ideas about what it represents can be powerful. Even many of Amano's best Iwagumi's could have been thought to be a submerged landscape or emerged...a home for fish...or for birds...the best scapes confuse these ideas and leave the viewer to decide while purposefully directing their gaze and focus. The scaper manipulates what the viewer sees and how they look at it, but leave enough ambiguity as to not eliminate various interpretations or perceptions by cornering the viewer.

But as with all art...its really in what the viewer likes or thinks is art. It cannot be defined or boxed in...I think we will see trends rise and fall. The contests tend to push this.

I was just wondering...but when is the last time you saw a scape with a cryptocoryne species win? This was one of Amano's favorite plants.
 
It's almost more like model railway building...I keep expecting to see the 2:30 to Clacton steaming through half of them...:D

article-2233921-160F147F000005DC-139_968x654.jpg
 
Tim Harrison said:
It's almost more like model railway building...I keep expecting to see the 2:30 to Clacton steaming through half of them...:D

article-2233921-160F147F000005DC-139_968x654.jpg
Click to expand...
Excactly my thought as well, always waiting for the train or trying to find the little hunter model figure shooting the critters flying around.

A few dozens of posts ago, i called it Bob Ross aquariums.. :D And a lot with "Happy little accidents"... :lol: Tho not my thing, dunno what else to think of it and a skill i will never master.. Only can highly respect those people who can it truely is an art form..

Usualy the most beautifull and highest ranked nature style scapes around are from people living next door to the jungle or forest and see it every day. Like Amano he was a photographer/documentarist traveling the world from jungle to jungle observing and sucking in nature sceneries like oatmeal for breakfast. That was his job and his work, which obviously reflected in his later aquascapes and he just manicured it into perfection. Probably raised with bonsai siccors in his hand this man was blessed with the best of both worlds. For someone from another culture not accommodated with this luxery and using only pictures and imagination it will be much harder to replicate. I think in this are very often the little details making the high ranks. Even with the rather distracting less is more phylosophy taken in account, there still is lot of tiny detail in the right place making it or braking it. And i guess that's the most difficult part, create a lot of interesting accurate natural details with a less is more approach.

In a way metaphoricaly speaking.. The closer you are to nature, the more natural this will come to you.

Hence if you are practicaly born smack dab in the middle, you've a step ahead. Then it's only natural that things come to you, without realy thinking about it that much.

That's what i always try to keep in mind as well.. I do not only look at the scape, i also look at the scapers origine.
 
Good point Marcel you may very well be on to something there. The geography of a place and how people interact with it has a massive influence on culture and art.
 
Well if you look at the 2015 rankings, the first 10 places where all Japan, China, Brazil and one mysterious lost soul from france.. :) The last one is the most interest to me, this realy stands out, tho France also has very large wild parks and huge mountain sceneries to grab also. But when comming to horticulture, this practicaly is invented in China and Japan and are countries or regions having all to offer, from (sub) tropical to snowy mountains etc.. See the whole contenders list and count the numbers of contestants comming from tropical regions, i didn't but just a glance already is enough to see it's the majority.. There the big cities are somewhat build at the jungles edge.. I never saw a jungle in my life, only what Walt Disney and David Attenborough showed me on a flat screen. For the rest i have to get my inspiration from between the pavement and the little forest next to my door. For me it's only a dream to take it up against a hurd of competition living in a goldmine.. :eek:
 
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