With a background in geography and GIS, curiosity about the cultural and physical landscape around us was a given. Traveling with family and friends was a normal vacation time activity. When retirement came, traveling went to an entirely new level. It became a journey, a passion, a quest to experience the world through GIS eyes! From the northernmost city in the world to the southernmost city, JoAnn has captured some extraordinary images of infrastructure and maps during her traveling escapades abroad!
Work: Retired in 2017 from Applied Data Consultants as a Senior GIS Project Manager. Prior to that she worked as a GIS Technician at the West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, Eau Claire, WIEducation:Bachelor of Art, GeographyUniversity of Wisconsin at Eau Claire(Cum... Read More →
Friday February 28, 2025 10:30am - 11:00am CST
Rosewood/Linden
Maps can help make a fantasy world more tangible to us. JRR Tolkien created Middle Earth originally from linguistic inspiration simply because he needed a reason, a place, and history for the Elvish languages he created. The maps of Middle Earth would become one of Tolkien’s most arduous journeys in creating his world. While some may argue that fantasy isn’t “real,” to Tolkien, the world he imagined has at least some truth to it. Middle Earth has a sense that it all existed in his imagination. Tolkien could have told you the height of the Misty Mountains or how vast of the Dead Marshes are. There are fantastical elements to Middle Earth, sure, but Tolkien’s “imaginary” languages, cultures, world, and geography are based upon our world and his travels during World War I. In a sense, they are rooted in some truth. ESRI now offers a Middle Earth “Style” labeled as “My Precious Style,” created by our guest speaker John Nelson. Join me and other fellow nerds to learn about the stories, pop culture, history, geography, and maps that brought fantasy into the mainstream.
