Week 40/2025

Follow the Motion

Nikolaus Forgó

26 Sep 2025 — 4 min read

In Austrian German "storm" can also stand for new wine.

NSFW (Nikolaus' Song For the Week)

This week's song is from an Austrian duo called Cari Cari.

They play concerts in Hannover on October 6th and in Oslip (Cselly Mühle) on December 6th (and at many other places, see the tour plan). The song (and also the cover design) reminds me of a mixture of Atlantis

and Cigarettes after Sex. The also do Super8-films (on Facebook, with some summer nostalgia). Redbull has a text about them (oh, the irony!).

Retrospect

Rechtspanorama

Die Presse Rechtspanorama celebrated its 35th birthday with a reception. Rechtspanorama and its founder and mastermind Benedikt Kommenda have been supporting the LLM-programme on Information-a and Media Law from the very beginning via a scholarship for one student per year. A class of 25 people therefore, so far, has graduated from the programme due to their generosity. I personally received a lot of support for our ambitions too I am very grateful for. I was therefore very pleased and grateful to be invited to their birthday party and delighted to join.

Editor in chief Florian Asamer (also a lawyer by training) and Benedikt Kommenda were opening the event

and the president of Austria's Consitutional Court Prof. DDr. Dr. h.c. Christoph Grabenwarter delivered a laudatio.

#arsboni

I did a nice interview with Christo Buschek on AI and journalism in the laundry.

Buschek is a very interesting personality, having lots of technical interest and background and a very remarkable track record in investigative journalism. Here's one of his stories:

And the LLP did another episode on Wednesday on asylum law with a judge from the federal administrative court (bundesverwaltungsgericht), Mag. Karin Winter.

Prospect

Rules for the Digital World

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Christiane Wednehorst invited me to an event that I will particiapte at (in the audience).

It comes from a cooperation with the WWTF and the City of Vienna, on Monday, 29 September at 17.00 in the MQ (restaurant "Libelle"). Here's the agenda.

Welcome Day

On Tuesday we will welcome this year's new students at the law school. I will be part of the crowd. Here are some pictures from last year.

Diplomatic Academy

On Thursday I will do the kick off of our course at the diplomatic academy

I'm teaching this with some of my younger colleagues at the department and I am very much looking forward to learning from students on their view on the digital security infrastructure all of us live in. Drones, AI, hybrid warfare etc. create a very challenging situation.

Look and Feel

Lessons on Change

I am currently reading this outstandingly nicely designed book full of conversations with people trying to make the world a better place.

I can connect very well with Andy Kaltenbrunner's chapter, of course, but also the others are worth being read.

Augen zu

Augen zu is a nice podcast on art that I discovered recently - thanks to a recommendation.

I enjoyed, in particular, the most recent episode on Martin Kippenberger.

I hadn't known much about his life before, in particular not that he had lived in Burgenland prior to his early death and that he had died under very sad circumstances in Vienna's general hospital.

Here's a text about Kippenberger's oeuvre. I also want to read the biography written by his sister Susanne Kippenberger (and warmly recommended in the podcast) - but the book is very difficult to get.

I learned a lot about a very interesting (and presumably still pending) copyright case (LG München I, 07.08.2023 - 42 O 7449/22, full text) involving his work "Paris Bar": it's about the difference between having an idea and creating a painting, based on the idea; a case about what it means to be a creator/author. Here's a report in Beck online and here's a (much more interesting) theoretical analysis of the case. The artist executing "Paris bar" following Kippenberger's instructions, Götz Valien, now to be named as co-creator of the painting, is Austrian too (and on Instagram).

Cole Hocker

And something completly different: US-runner Cole Hocker was disqualified in the semifinals of the 1500m world championship race in Tokyo.

And here's what he made out of this: With an unbelievable last round he overtook 11 (or so) opponents on the last 400m of the 5000m race and - just won. Watch (at least) the last round - he passes by all these other world class athletes as if he were the only one running in a crowd of strollers. Amazing.