DJCAD Degree Show 2013, University of Dundee

Later, in one of the college's many studios pressed into service as temporary exhibition spaces, I met one of their number, Ross Weryk, who was tweaking his installation Hospital. This powerful work uses sound, video and sculpture to make a visceral statement about the way in which hospital patients become helpless in the face of medical intervention and pain.

A slightly flushed-looking Weryk had just heard he'd gained a first-class degree. As we talked and I looked at his work, which even includes film of him having his own blood extracted (talk about a metaphor), I learned that his mother died last year from cancer. This encouraged him to go deeper than ever into his art and follow up an existing interest in cosmetic surgery.

Putting together a degree show is a double-edged sword - and there are at least two swords on display here. One of them, presented by brothers Fraser and Calum Brownlee, is deep-fried and sitting in a bath of oil; the other, by Dorian Braun and Jack Paton, has a large sign beside declaring "Danger do not touch".

After four years of working towards an honours degree, these artists-in-waiting are putting on what, for many of them, is their first major exhibition in a public space. Careers are often made at degree shows. Traditionally, they are edgy affairs. Taboo subjects are tackled with youthful gusto – I still can't get the sight of that green member jiggling about in Jacqueline Chua's video out of my mind – and many have still to learn how to put the old adage of less is more into practice.

DJCAD, currently celebrating its 125th anniversary, is traditionally the first degree show to take place each year out of Scotland's five art schools. This year, the show is called 290°, a nod to the fact Dundee's largest annual exhibition of art and design will feature the work of 290 final-year students, while an additional exhibition of alumni artwork will be held for the duration of the show.

Students from DJCAD's 11 undergraduate programmes are represented. It's tempting to root out themes and, if there is one, it appears to be about searching for a bridge between tradition and the making of solid things.

Digital technology is used to augment hand-crafted, drawn or painted work, although there is some fine "pure painting" from Allan Davies and Brendan Collins. I also enjoyed the freshness of Jaynie Topping's landscapes, prints and sculptures, which mix up geology, geography, issues of land ownership and a sense of poetry connected to the land.

Cathy O'Brien's Minotaur work is a fusion of craft-meets-sculpture-meets-video-work and shows exceptional attention to detail. Elsewhere, Jonny Lyons makes and displays quite beautifully crafted sculptural versions of weapons and then documents their use through photography in a touchingly boyish way.

Calum Crotch from Time Based Art and Digital Film dances to his own drum beat in a carefully constructed tented festival venue. There is purpose here, and Crotch has already been accepted on to Creative Scotland's Starter For Six programme to further develop his ideas into a working business.

In Art Philosophy Contemporary Practices, Dan Shay gained a first for his thoughtful examination of how we blur the boundaries between the real and the virtual. This is intelligent work which can be taken at face value if you so desire.

Next door to his "shed", I found Morgan Cahn putting the finishing touches to her shiny "reflective space". Sporting one of her handprinted T-shirts bearing the legend "there is life after degree show" – they are famous around the campus – Cahn plays with many disciplines, including performance, film, textiles, printmaking and text. She is the living embodiment of the fact it is almost impossible to pin down any degree show.

All human life is here. And more. Just watch out for double-edged swords.

DJCAD Degree Show 2013, University of Dundee, 13 Perth Road, Dundee (01382 385330, www.dundee.ac.uk/djcad/degreeshow) until May 25