Stephanie Beattie is an artist and designer exploring the dynamics of social interaction. She received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California in Linguistics, where she was a teaching assistant for a seminar on the scientific study of consciousness, and attended the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She is currently completing an MFA in Transdisciplinary Design at Parsons. Her professional endeavors have included ESL instruction, basic sciences research, filmmaking and theatrical projections design, most recently with Baltimore’s Center Stage production of One Night in Miami. Her thesis work is focused on the effects and communicative potential of secret handshakes and positive touch, incorporating both arts and design research in the forms of video, sculpture, participatory performance and interaction design.