In contemporary art, innovation is the new perspiration. Since Chris Ofili won the Turner prize in 1998 for paintings created with varnished lumps of elephant dung and Tracey Emin was nominated the following year with an installation consisting of her own unmade bed littered with used condoms and bloodstained underwear, the odd, the curious and the downright yucky have grabbed all the headlines.

The average art school degree show may attract less attention than the Turner prize, but as final year art students across Scotland prepare to exhibit their work this month, the desire to stand out from the crowd is just as intense.

Take Ross Colquhoun, a final-year graphic design student at Edinburgh College of Art, who is the first person in the world to create a piece of art with the e.coli virus (Damien Hirst take note).

“It all started when I was given the task of designing a version of the logo for MTV under the simple brief of the word ‘virus’,” says Colquhoun. “I came up with an approach that was literal but innovative. It’s worth pointing out that my aim in my final year was to experiment as much as possible, and that includes mediums that have never been used before.”

The most dangerous strains of e.coli can kill, which puts a whole new spin on suffering for one’s art.

“My idea was to grow the logo out of bacteria and film the process happening,” says Colquhoun. “I approached various biolabs and university labs and eventually I was lucky enough to get through to a professor named Chris French at Edinburgh University, who said that growth into the shape of the logo would not be a problem using e.coli bacteria. I have to confess, at that point I was a little worried.”

Colquhoun pulled on a white coat and protective gloves and grew the culture himself using a strain of e.coli that had been modified so that it was fluorescent. He then filmed the growth over 48 hours. The final work will be shown as a time-lapse video to avoid potential health mishaps.

Degree shows are a springboard for tomorrow’s artists. The buzz created around them can be the difference between fame and a lifetime of obscurity. A lucky few students have already bridged the gap between college and the real world. Lesley Thomson, a fourth-year student on the interior and environmental design course at the University of Dundee’s Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, has already turned her degree project, W4D (Women For Design) into a business.

“I always wanted to run my own business but I didn’t think I’d be doing it as soon as this,” said Thompson, who is from Cupar, Fife. “I initially thought I’d try and get a job with another company but then I thought, ‘Why not at least try my own thing?’ ”

At Glasgow School of Art, silversmith and jewellery student Jasleen Kaur is being touted as a star of tomorrow after winning a coveted place at the Royal College of Art in London, one of just 20 places available each year to international applicants.

Kaur, 22, takes her inspiration from her Glaswegian roots and Indian heritage to create jewellery that is retro at heart and modern in spirit. Using techniques based on those of German goldsmith Karl Fritsch, who is famous for his use of oxidised precious metals, she makes both conventional jewellery — intricate rings and brooches — and tabletop rings, trinkets and amulets that can be carried in a pocket or a handbag.

“A lot of my work is inspired by the idea of setting up religious shrines in your house,” says Kaur. “You see them on the streets in India, a cluster of objects that people stand in front of and pray to. To anybody else, it’s just a bunch of pictures on a shelf but, to the person using it, it’s something completely different. My jewellery functions as little portable shrines.”

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