When you’re the mastermind who makes the impossible happen, with a series of record-breaking world firsts under your belt, it must be hard to imagine how you can go one better on the next ambitious project.
But fresh from creating a huge globe of the Earth — surrounded by dancing clouds — to form the centrepiece at the opening ceremony of Expo 2020 Dubai, Patrick O’Mahony is facing his toughest challenge yet.
This time, the 39-year-old Yorkshireman is in the midst of rescuing a North Sea oil rig to transform it into an art installation to display how the British weather can be used to create a sustainable future, through wave and wind power.
Whose mad idea was it to attempt to move an oil rig to a British seaside resort? Why, O'Mahony's of course.
“This is one of our craziest, most ambitious ideas,” O'Mahony told The National.
“All our other work has been working with the entertainment industry, this time we are having to get a core product from a totally different industry. It’s never been done.”
But this is the man who managed to create a world-first when he was given just two months to design a giant golden falcon, celebrating the UAE’s emblem, that could be attached to a helicopter and flown around Meydan racetrack to open the Dubai Racing World Cup.
Did it work? Of course it did.
Abu Dhabi helped inspire world's first oil rig art installation
This time, O'Mahony’s team at his company Newsubstance, in Leeds, northern England, wanted to come up with a winning pitch to be part of the UK government’s £120 million ($158.3 million) year-long Unboxed — Creativity in the UK free art initiative.
Unboxed is funding 10 large-scale, public art engagement projects that will show off the UK’s creativity and innovation globally throughout 2022.
With a brief of creating a piece of art to tell a renewables story, O'Mahony and his team knew that they wanted to create a bold idea that would “celebrate the great British weather”.
After days racking their brains, it was finally at the UAE's National Day in Abu Dhabi — where the team were behind the spectacular ceremony — where inspiration struck and See Monster was born.
“We were taking a break, it was a beautiful day with a clear blue sky and we were brainstorming ideas,” he said.
“We knew we wanted to tell the story of the great British weather. The first thing people do in Britain is talk about the weather, it’s part of our identity.
“We wanted to look at the weather and frame it as our renewable future. We like things that are big and physical and living in a digital age we wanted to do something big and ambitious that would bring a smile to people’s faces.
“Then it came to me, sat in one of the world’s oil capitals, what about obtaining an oil rig and transforming a big brutal structure like that?
“I thought wouldn’t it be amazing if we could repurpose it and acknowledge its past and use it to look to the future.”
Their pitch won: the world’s first and only repurposed oil rig, called See Monster, which will be placed on the British seafront and use renewable energy sources to power it, from the sea and wind to the sun.
The 36-metre tall structure will provide a fun educational place focusing on weather, climate change and green technologies and will have a dedicated outreach team to talk about science, technology, engineering, arts and maths.
Where do you find a spare oil rig to turn into a piece of art?
So, where do you start trying to find an oil rig?
“Obviously, the first thought was ‘where do I get an oil rig from? Is it even possible’,” O'Mahony said.
“I found a firm that moves rigs around the world. I rang them up and said 'I know this is a ridiculous question but I want to make an oil rig into an art installation, would you come on board?' No one had ever asked the question before.
“These platforms are recycled rather than reused and when I spoke to tonnes of people in the oil industry they all agreed it was something we should be doing. It was then an issue of trying to find the right platform that was at the end of its life.”
The team sought help from the UK’s capital of oil, the Scottish city of Aberdeen, which is now being transformed into Europe’s renewables capital.
A rig was identified that had been in the North Sea for the past 20 years and was nearing the end of its life.
“The rig would have gone for recycling and we are giving it a new life,” he said.
“We have stripped it of all the pipework and we have the strong framework left. It’s yellow and covered in rust, you can see all the scars on it, you can almost feel its history. Nothing on it is small, the beams are over a metre deep.
“We’re not repainting it, we want people to see it as it is and to be able to see the development phase and it being transformed into something that is economically sustainable.
“The whole ethos is we wanted to take an existing oil rig that’s been out in the North Sea generating energy and show where it has come from and where it can go to. We want to transform it from a massive brutal feature to what it is capable of doing in the future.”
How do you move a giant North Sea oil rig to a seaside resort?
The team has chosen the south-west seaside resort of Weston-Super-Mare in Somerset to place the installation on the site of its former lido, the Tropicana, which in its heyday attracted thousands of visitors, including Hollywood stars Laurel and Hardy.
Recently the venue hosted Banksy’s Dismaland theme park.
The arrival date of the platform is shrouded in secrecy.
But the question has to be asked, how do you transport an entire offshore platform from its North Sea home to the south-west coast of England?
“It’s very big and complicated and the theatre of how it arrives is important,” he said.
“People will be able to see the raw bones of the rig arriving and then over a two-month period it will slowly rehabilitate into a big renewable future.
“We are just working through all the different logistics. It’s like the circus coming to town.”
Once installed the structure will tower above the resort in height and have waterfalls cascading from it transforming the rig into a piece of beauty.
“We want people to have goosebumps over what they see,” he said.
“The journey to the top will be important, we want visitors to be guided up slowly through garden laboratories, solar technologies and wind turbines before reaching the amphitheatre.
“It will be very impressive. There will be places for people to sit at the top so they can take time out and just look out to sea.”
Team creates technical illusions, from flying moons to grass-covered deserts
The Newsubstance team has 18 people in its studio working on the venture and a further 17 creative designers in its workshop.
“My team create the ideas and we sit around the table with our engineers and try to work out what’s physically possible,” he said.
“We do everything in-house so we have our own workshop where we can practise what is and isn’t feasible.
“One of my favourite creations so far has been Dubai Expo 2020. We designed the big centrepiece. We created a globe of the world and it had to come out of a one-and-a-half-metre space in the stage and grow to 11 metres.”
The previous projects include:
Opening Louvre Abu Dhabi with a spectacular falling stars finale in which 6,000 LED lights were placed in the lattice domed roof.
Greening of the Desert display at the 2018 UAE National Day. Here the team created a grass path system using 2,500 tubes containing grass bundles that gradually rose up through the stage to create the ‘greening of the desert’.
UAE’s 48th National Day Here the team designed the flying moon display at Zayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi. They created 12, two-metre wide internally lit moons using shells from acrylic spheres that were hand finished and coated in a vinyl graphic sourced from Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. They created a motorised mechanism to keep each moon in its correct rotational orbit using an electric compass that enabled each moon to transition through a full lunar cycle.
The team are excited at the months ahead working on the See Monster art installation but they are already looking to the future.
“The whole concept of See Monster was wanting to crack the nut and create a blueprint for the future,” O'Mahony said.
“Abu Dhabi and Dubai share our ambition of being the first and being brave and creative to break the boundaries.
“I could see the project moving to Abu Dhabi in the future as they look to a sustainable future. I’d love to be able to take it there in the future and showcase it in the place where the idea was born.”
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
US PGA Championship in numbers
1 Joost Luiten produced a memorable hole in one at the par-three fourth in the first round.
2 To date, the only two players to win the PGA Championship after winning the week before are Rory McIlroy (2014 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational) and Tiger Woods (2007, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational). Hideki Matsuyama or Chris Stroud could have made it three.
3 Number of seasons without a major for McIlroy, who finished in a tie for 22nd.
4 Louis Oosthuizen has now finished second in all four of the game's major championships.
5 In the fifth hole of the final round, McIlroy holed his longest putt of the week - from 16ft 8in - for birdie.
6 For the sixth successive year, play was disrupted by bad weather with a delay of one hour and 43 minutes on Friday.
7 Seven under par (64) was the best round of the week, shot by Matsuyama and Francesco Molinari on Day 2.
8 Number of shots taken by Jason Day on the 18th hole in round three after a risky recovery shot backfired.
9 Jon Rahm's age in months the last time Phil Mickelson missed the cut in the US PGA, in 1995.
10 Jimmy Walker's opening round as defending champion was a 10-over-par 81.
11 The par-four 11th coincidentally ranked as the 11th hardest hole overall with a scoring average of 4.192.
12 Paul Casey was a combined 12 under par for his first round in this year's majors.
13 The average world ranking of the last 13 PGA winners before this week was 25. Kevin Kisner began the week ranked 25th.
14 The world ranking of Justin Thomas before his victory.
15 Of the top 15 players after 54 holes, only Oosthuizen had previously won a major.
16 The par-four 16th marks the start of Quail Hollow's so-called "Green Mile" of finishing holes, some of the toughest in golf.
17 The first round scoring average of the last 17 major champions was 67.2. Kisner and Thorbjorn Olesen shot 67 on day one at Quail Hollow.
18 For the first time in 18 majors, the eventual winner was over par after round one (Thomas shot 73).
Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week
360Vuz PROFILE
Date started: January 2017
Founder: Khaled Zaatarah
Based: Dubai and Los Angeles
Sector: Technology
Size: 21 employees
Funding: $7 million
Investors: Shorooq Partners, KBW Ventures, Vision Ventures, Hala Ventures, 500Startups, Plug and Play, Magnus Olsson, Samih Toukan, Jonathan Labin
Record breaker
- The most total field goals made in NBA history, as well as the most consecutive games scoring 10 or more points
- The only player in NBA history to reach 10,000 rebounds and 10,000 assists
- Four-time regular season MVP and four-time NBA Finals MVP
- Six-time NBA All-Defensive selection. Rookie of the Year in 2004
- The most All-NBA selections with 21 in a row, including a record 13 first team selections
- The most consecutive All-Star selections with 21
- The only player to play alongside his son; Bronny James was chosen by the Lakers in the 2024 NBA draft
KINGDOM%20OF%20THE%20PLANET%20OF%20THE%20APES
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Wes%20Ball%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Owen%20Teague%2C%20Freya%20Allen%2C%20Kevin%20Durand%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E3.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is the most popular virtual currency in the world. It was created in 2009 as a new way of paying for things that would not be subject to central banks that are capable of devaluing currency. A Bitcoin itself is essentially a line of computer code. It's signed digitally when it goes from one owner to another. There are sustainability concerns around the cryptocurrency, which stem from the process of "mining" that is central to its existence.
The "miners" use computers to make complex calculations that verify transactions in Bitcoin. This uses a tremendous amount of energy via computers and server farms all over the world, which has given rise to concerns about the amount of fossil fuel-dependent electricity used to power the computers.
The biog
From: Upper Egypt
Age: 78
Family: a daughter in Egypt; a son in Dubai and his wife, Nabila
Favourite Abu Dhabi activity: walking near to Emirates Palace
Favourite building in Abu Dhabi: Emirates Palace
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
THE SPECS
GMC Sierra Denali 1500
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Price: Dh232,500
DUNE%3A%20PART%20TWO
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Denis%20Villeneuve%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Timothee%20Chamalet%2C%20Zendaya%2C%20Austin%20Butler%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%205%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
New Zealand T20 squad
New Zealand T20 squad: Tim Southee (captain), Finn Allen, Todd Astle, Hamish Bennett, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway (wicketkeeper), Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Adam Milne, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Ish Sodhi, Will Young
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%201.8-litre%204-cyl%20turbo%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E190hp%20at%205%2C200rpm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20320Nm%20from%201%2C800-5%2C000rpm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeven-speed%20dual-clutch%20auto%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFuel%20consumption%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%206.7L%2F100km%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20From%20Dh111%2C195%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
THE SPECS
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Transmission: six-speed manual
Power: 325bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Speed: 0-100km/h 3.9 seconds
Price: Dh230,000
On sale: now
World%20Food%20Day%20
%3Cp%3ECelebrated%20on%20October%2016%2C%20to%20coincide%20with%20the%20founding%20date%20of%20the%20United%20Nations%20Food%20and%20Agriculture%20Organisation%2C%20World%20Food%20Day%20aims%20to%20tackle%20issues%20such%20as%20hunger%2C%20food%20security%2C%20food%20waste%20and%20the%20environmental%20impact%20of%20food%20production.%20%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
MATCH INFO
Euro 2020 qualifier
Ukraine 2 (Yaremchuk 06', Yarmolenko 27')
Portugal 1 (Ronaldo 72' pen)
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
TALE OF THE TAPE
Floyd Mayweather
- Height
- Weight
- Reach
- Record
Conor McGregor
- Height
- Weight
- Reach
- Record
Tour de France 2017: Stage 5
Vittel - La Planche de Belles Filles, 160.5km
It is a shorter stage, but one that will lead to a brutal uphill finish. This is the third visit in six editions since it was introduced to the race in 2012. Reigning champion Chris Froome won that race.
Mubalada World Tennis Championship 2018 schedule
Thursday December 27
Men's quarter-finals
Kevin Anderson v Hyeon Chung 4pm
Dominic Thiem v Karen Khachanov 6pm
Women's exhibition
Serena Williams v Venus Williams 8pm
Friday December 28
5th place play-off 3pm
Men's semi-finals
Rafael Nadal v Anderson/Chung 5pm
Novak Djokovic v Thiem/Khachanov 7pm
Saturday December 29
3rd place play-off 5pm
Men's final 7pm
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
The Pope's itinerary
Sunday, February 3, 2019 - Rome to Abu Dhabi
1pm: departure by plane from Rome / Fiumicino to Abu Dhabi
10pm: arrival at Abu Dhabi Presidential Airport
Monday, February 4
12pm: welcome ceremony at the main entrance of the Presidential Palace
12.20pm: visit Abu Dhabi Crown Prince at Presidential Palace
5pm: private meeting with Muslim Council of Elders at Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
6.10pm: Inter-religious in the Founder's Memorial
Tuesday, February 5 - Abu Dhabi to Rome
9.15am: private visit to undisclosed cathedral
10.30am: public mass at Zayed Sports City – with a homily by Pope Francis
12.40pm: farewell at Abu Dhabi Presidential Airport
1pm: departure by plane to Rome
5pm: arrival at the Rome / Ciampino International Airport
New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
- To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
- Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
- Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Constant Variable (CVT)
Power: 141bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: Dh64,500
On sale: Now
The specs: 2018 Mazda CX-5
Price, base / as tested: Dh89,000 / Dh130,000
Engine: 2.5-litre four-cylinder
Power: 188hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 251Nm @ 4,000rpm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.1L / 100km
%3Cp%3E%3Ca%20href%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenationalnews.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fislamic-economy-consumer-spending-to-increase-45-to-3-2tn-by-2024-1.936583%22%20target%3D%22_self%22%3EGlobal%20Islamic%20economy%20to%20grow%203.1%25%20to%20touch%20%242.4%20trillion%20by%202024%3C%2Fa%3E%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Ca%20href%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenationalnews.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fuk-economy-plunges-into-worst-ever-recession-after-record-20-4-contraction-1.1062560%22%20target%3D%22_self%22%3EUK%20economy%20plunges%20into%20worst-ever%20recession%20after%20record%2020.4%25%20contraction%3C%2Fa%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Ca%20href%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenationalnews.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fislamic-economy-consumer-spending-to-increase-45-to-3-2tn-by-2024-1.936583%22%20target%3D%22_self%22%3EIslamic%20economy%20consumer%20spending%20to%20increase%2045%25%20to%20%243.2tn%20by%202024%3C%2Fa%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
THE%20SPECS
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Day 1, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Dimuth Karunaratne had batted with plenty of pluck, and no little skill, in getting to within seven runs of a first-day century. Then, while he ran what he thought was a comfortable single to mid-on, his batting partner Dinesh Chandimal opted to stay at home. The opener was run out by the length of the pitch.
Stat of the day – 1 One six was hit on Day 1. The boundary was only breached 18 times in total over the course of the 90 overs. When it did arrive, the lone six was a thing of beauty, as Niroshan Dickwella effortlessly clipped Mohammed Amir over the square-leg boundary.
The verdict Three wickets down at lunch, on a featherbed wicket having won the toss, and Sri Lanka’s fragile confidence must have been waning. Then Karunaratne and Chandimal's alliance of precisely 100 gave them a foothold in the match. Dickwella’s free-spirited strokeplay meant the Sri Lankans were handily placed at 227-4 at the close.
