This special issue of Mediapolis, A Journal of Cities and Culture by Sigrid Merx, Coco Kanters, Michiel de Lange, and Nanna Verhoeff, introduces a dossier that positions creative methods as vital approaches for researching contemporary urban life. The authors argue that experimental, situated, embodied, and relational practices—such as data walking, performative mapping, experimental ethnography, and participatory research—generate forms of knowledge that conventional methods often overlook. Rather than treating researchers as detached observers, these approaches embrace collaboration, reflexivity, and engagement with communities, artists, and urban environments. The dossier demonstrates how creative methods can address complex social, technological, and ecological urban challenges while producing transformative, ethically grounded, and context-sensitive knowledge about cities.