Creative productions are integral to research conducted through practices of art, design, and craft. Examples abound in the literature, ranging from artifacts and prototypes to inventive forms of research presentation and dissemination. While funding bodies and policy frameworks have started to recognize their contributory significance to the generation of knowledge, productions of this kind are still deemed discretized research components. This paper illustrates how they can be better understood as fluid assemblages that enact and are enacted by change. Drawing on a diffractive reading of research projects conducted by ourselves, we present three ways of reconsidering the fluid nature of creative productions in research through art, design, and craft. Central to our discussion is the need to shift from a perspective of neatly defined outputs to one of fluidity and systemic affect. We conclude by raising questions about the place and continuity of these assemblages outside formal research, emphasizing the need to adequately assess their societal value beyond academia.