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