SMRU (Social Morphologies Research Unit) is a collaboration between artists and social anthropologists with a shared interest in the creative, educational and transformative use of diagrams. Initially conceived under the auspices of CARP (Comparative Anthropologies of Revolution), a research project led by Martin Holbraad, professor of Social Anthroplogy at UCL, SMRU was brought together by Holbraad and the artist David Burrows in November 2017. The group includes the artists Lucy Cash, Melanie Jackson, Dean Kenning, Lucy A Sames and the anthropologists Narges Ansari, Igor Cherstich, Martin Holbraad, Kelly Fagan Robinson, Julia Sauma and Kaya Uzel.

In 2018 SMRU gave a panel presentation at Association of Social Anthropologists Annual Conference in Oxford entitled ‘Diagrams of revolution: an experiment with social and material morphologies’ at which a gave a paper ‘The Revolutionary Practice of Art Theory: Pedagogical Diagrams for Art and Social Change since the 1960’s’.

Working in pairs the group created its first public exhibition of collaborative work, Morphologies of Invisible Agents, at Space Studios, Hackney in April 2019. SMRU is currently developing a new project which will apply an ethnographic-diagramming method to art schools and arts education, exploring the different forms of value they generate, question and challenge.